When I was a kid I had a couple super-annoying skin conditions. Maybe you’ve experienced that too. First I had eczema. Second, an allergic reaction to nickel in metal alloys (I still can’t wear watches with metal backs, or I break out). Then I developed plantar warts on my fingers and the soles of my feet. Disgusting, right? I remember being a freshman in high school, new to the school because I had only gone to a small private school prior to that, embarrassed of my wart-ridden fingertips, so I would ball my hands into fists, covering the warts. Of course, acne is an ever-present reality for many teens. Thankfully, I grew out of my skin conditions. But if you watch Dr. Pimple Popper online, people of all ages, shapes and sizes can have skin conditions of astounding varieties.
Do you think Jesus dealt with any of those skin conditions? Or did God give him perfect skin? We contemporary humans can spend a lot of time, money and energy striving for so-called perfect skin, with our cremes and treatments and jade rollers. If you’re reading this wondering what jade rollers are, all I know is that my daughter’s friends got her one for her birthday last year. It looks like a mini-rolling pin that use on your face, and it is supposed to help you have better skin. Can you imagine Jesus using a jade roller on his face? I don’t think they had jade rollers, cremes or facials in the ancient near east (except for the wealthy), so it was highly likely that Jesus broke out like any teen and had acne. He probably popped his pimples, though I suspect most Jewish peasants did not have mirrors. Maybe they had a polished metal plate. Maybe they didn’t care about their appearance as much as we do.
If you’re wondering why I’m speculating about Jesus having skin conditions, it’s because the first week in our blog series studying the Gospel of John talks about that very topic. John doesn’t start with the birth of Jesus, and in fact, he begins before that. Way before that. Before there was a man named Jesus. But in short order, John fast-forwards to Jesus’ humanity, though he never mentions Jesus’ birth. Instead, strangely enough, John talks about Jesus’ skin. What we’ll learn about Jesus’ skin is surprisingly important to each of us.
Join us next week on the blog as we talk about it.
Do you have a nickname? I think nicknames are loads of fun. Interestingly, it seems Jesus was inclined to give some of his friends nicknames! That not only tells you something about Jesus’ personality, but also about the power of naming.
One of the people that Jesus gave a nickname was his friend John, whose backstory we have been studying this week as we prepare to enter a months-long study of John’s Gospel. To learn John’s nickname, turn to Mark 3:17. There we read that Jesus gave the name Boarneges to the brothers James and John. Boarneges is likely a Hebrew or Aramaic word, so thankfully, Mark tells us what it means: “Sons of Thunder.” Why would Jesus call him that? Was their dad thunder-like? Maybe. James’ and John’s dad’s name was Zebedee, and though he shows up in a few stories, those stories never tell us anything about him. Instead, it seems that Jesus gave James and John the nickname Sons of Thunder because of how they acted. How did they act?
Turn in your Bible to Luke 9:51-56, where we read a story about James and John that might help us understand why Jesus gave them the nickname Sons of Thunder. Please pause reading this post, because you’ll want to read Luke’s story, as it is fascinating, and then continue the post below.
How about that? James and John wanted to send down fire on the Samaritans! I wish I could see video of it. Were they angry and vicious when they said it? Were they laughing? Was it a joke or was it real? And if it was real, did they believe they could actually send fire on the Samaritans? Or we they expressing a deep faith in God that God would do it? I’m partially impressed, if they were being serious, because it means they believed God would perform the miracle of reigning down fire from heaven if he wanted to. No doubt that would be an awesome miracle to behold. But whether they were serious or not, Jesus rebukes them, because that’s not what he was about. Here again, was he laughing at their ridiculousness? Or was he upset at them, because clearly they had not taken to heart his teachings about loving your enemies. And when Jesus rebuked them, were they humble and teachable, willing to admit their bad attitude? Did they learn from this?
We don’t know, of course, but we do know that their thunderousness comes up another way. Turn in your Bible to Matthew 20:20-28. Keep your finger there and also turn to Mark 10:35-45. Both places, Matthew 20 and Mark 10, tell the same story, but Matthew includes one important extra detail. Please pause reading this post and read Mark’s version of the story first.
How bold, right? They want to be given special privileges from Jesus? They want him to name them as the #2 and #3 officials in his Kingdom? What is going on with these two? They must have been something else.
Now turn to Matthew’s version of the story, and look at verse 20. Surprise, surprise, their mom is with them, advocating for them as well! Maybe it is not their father who is the thunderous one, but their mom! In fact, though this story does not put James, John or their mom in a good light, she will show up in the gospels, true to Jesus till the end (see Matthew 27:56), including almost certainly being named as, Salome, one of the three women who traveled to Jesus grave to put spices on his corpse but found an empty tomb. Clearly, she was a strong woman, and it seems she passed this strength to her boys.
It was a strength for sure. We are called to be bold, but our boldness is too often left unchecked, untrained by humility and the Fruit of the Spirit, so that we too can be Sons and Daughters of Thunder. I suspect that Jesus, when he gave them that nickname, he did so with a twinkle in his eye, because he knew that there was more to James and John than just being arrogant or impetuous. That’s why Jesus taught what he taught them after they and their mother asked Jesus to give them special places in their kingdom. What did Jesus say? Look at Mark 10 verse 42. He is talking about the way of the world, and he describes it as “lording it over” people.
Lording it over? What is Jesus talking about?
Jesus is referring to a relational tendency that was very prevalent in his era, and still is common in ours. It is using our tone of voice, our body language, our boldness, including the boldness to be passive aggressive, which is a sneaky boldness. We can use those methods to control, to hurt, to wound, to get our way. It is akin to survival of the fittest in business, in relationships, in school, on sports teams, using whatever means necessary to get ahead, to win.
Jesus says, “Not so with you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.” And then he talks about how his mission was to serve, to give his life. That is the foundation of Christian discipleship. We give our lives, just as Jesus gave his. Would the Son of Thunder, John, give his life? He sure did. For the rest of his life, he served Jesus, the church, and the world.
What I love from this detail in the story of John the Disciple is that Jesus does call regular people, untrained people, to follow him, and they can follow him and serve in his Kingdom. John was a fisherman. John did not go to seminary. John was a guy who let stuff fly out of his mouth.
Does that resonate with you? Have you ever thought, “I don’t know enough about the Bible. I don’t have good control over my mouth. I’m just a regular guy who works with my hands. My vocabulary is more like Dr. Suess. I don’t think I’m the person God really wants to make an impact in his Kingdom.”
Then look at how Jesus interacts with John. He says “Come follow me,” and then look at what John did. He followed. John could have said, “Me? No, not me. You’ve got the wrong guy Jesus.”
But John followed, and Jesus shaped John into a man who served his Kingdom well. What next step will you take to answer Jesus’ call to follow him into a new area, a deeper discipleship?
John is not alone in telling the story of Jesus. The other three Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life have been published long before. Mark first, then Matthew and Luke soon after. They are all very similar to one another, so John decides to go in a different direction. There is nothing wrong with the other three, but John wants other aspects of Jesus to be remembered by the succeeding generations of disciples. How is John’s account unique?
In some ways, John’s account is more personal and more spiritual, you could even say more theological, than the other Gospels. John wants people to believe in Jesus, and he takes great pains to convey that to his readers. The most famous instance of this is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s why one of our primary goals through this series will be to grow a deeper faith in Jesus that works itself out in a life of faithfulness to Jesus. We will see John use the word “believe” repeatedly.
Before I talk further about John’s emphasis on belief, let’s take what might seem to be a bit of a sidetrack. Some people believe it is possible that John did not write as an old man. They claim John wrote as a middle-aged man, perhaps in the 50s to 70CE due to his references that make it seem Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed. For example, in John 5:2, he writes that there “is” a pool in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 CE, so if John was writing after that date, you’d think he would have written that there “used to be a pool”. Adherents to this early date of publication also suggest it is much more likely that a younger John could author a book compared to an elderly John.
But as I suggested, it seems to me that evidence points to John as writing much later in life. We know that as the years went by, John had a ministry tenure in Ephesus. Perhaps the Gospel of John was written from there or to the church in Ephesus. All those years in ministry have given John time to reflect, to mature in his thinking about his old friend, and what the next generation needs to know about Jesus.
As John attempts to give us a strong case for believing in and following Jesus, we’ll see him be very intentional about proving to us that Jesus is who he said he was. We’ll see this in lists. John loves lists. He includes a list of testifiers/witnesses about Jesus. He includes a list of “signs,” miracles which point people to believe in Jesus. As I mentioned early, he also includes a list of “I am” statements which point people to see that Jesus is God. For eight of the I AMs, Jesus compares himself to something, using figurative language. Then there are more I AMs that are not figurative but explicit, literal statements of who Jesus is. John wants us to believe in, know and live for Jesus.
John is an excellent book to study if you want to grow in your knowledge and love of Jesus. Therefore, John is recommended as a starting point for people interested in learning about Christianity because of its emphasis on belief, on Jesus as the Divine Christ who is 100% human and 100% God, as authenticated by the testifiers, the signs and the “I am” statements. Yet its themes are also deep, often very theological and philosophical.
Check back in for the final post introducing the Gospel of John, as we need to talk about John’s nickname.
The fisherman we met in the first post of this blog series on the backstory of the Apostle John, brothers James and John, crank out the daily grind of trying to make ends meet in a job that is not very profitable. Day after day goes by. A week here a week there. People are still talking about the Baptist. People are still hating Rome. People are still yearning for a deliverer.
A few more weeks, and a new story hits the streets. Another prophet. Or maybe it is better to call him a Rabbi. He is different than John, they say. He is not baptizing. He is a teacher, and thus the title “Rabbi” fits better than “Prophet.” And his teaching is amazing! He tells profound stories that get to the heart and soul. He explains God’s word with such richness and authority. He is like no other Rabbi they had ever encountered.
He seems to be right in line with John the Baptizer though. As if John the Baptist was a Part 1, and now this new teacher is Part 2 of the same story. But then the people say something else, something that makes you squint your eyes and say, “Come on…really?” The people say this teacher heals the sick, makes the lame to walk, gives sight to the blind and releases people from demonic possession. Did they remember that man who John didn’t want to baptize (the man we met in the previous post here)? Did they make the connection?
They would soon enough. James and John go out to see this supposed miracle-worker, as he was also from their region of Galilee, but they heard he was from Nazareth. Nazareth? That small, nothing town had a reputation: “Nothing good comes out of Nazareth.”
But this man was not your typical person from Nazareth. Word on the street was that he was a carpenter, a mason, a handyman turned teacher and miracle-worker. So the fisherman wanted to see for themselves. They followed the crowds, and when they found him, it was all true. He could be funny, and he could be sincere; he could be insightful, and he had a deep authority like they had never encountered before. And yes, he healed people. The shrieks of delight resounded, and more and more people lined up to have an audience with him. It was mayhem.
Who was the man? They said his name was “Yeshua.” Or as it is transliterated in English, “Joshua.” Though we are more accustomed to “Jesus.” That handyman from Nazareth was a Rabbi? A miracle-worker? It didn’t seem possible, but people from Nazareth confirmed it was all true. James and John were enthralled. As were just about everyone in the crowd.
Then Jesus turns and walks over to James and John and says. “Follow me.” James and John do that thing where they turn this way and that, certain that Jesus cannot possibly be talking to them. They look back at him, and point to their chests, mouthing silently, “Me? You want us to follow you?” Jesus says, “Yes, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Huh? Follow him where? Fishers of men? What can he possibly mean?
We know the rest of the story. They follow Jesus, and for the next 2+ years their lives are a wild roller coaster ride. We’ll learn about that in the rest of the blog series as we study the text of John. I want to fast forward past Jesus’ ministry years, past his death, resurrection and ascension, and glance at what John was up to at the beginning of the church. Last week in our final Relationships blog series posts, we read Acts 3, and who do we find there? Peter and John. Peter, the leader of the church, and John, one of Jesus’ inner circle. They are ministering and healing. No doubt, the book of Acts focuses mostly on Peter and Paul, who were by far the two most famous members of the early church. But John was a top leader as well, even if he isn’t mentioned as much. John was a faithful minister of the Gospel. In fact, the traditional view says that he lived longer than the other disciples.
Now we fast forward even farther. John has beaten the statistics for life expectancy in that culture, and he is an old man. Now he sits down to write about Jesus, perhaps 50-60 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. He has watched the church grow, expand, and change into a movement throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Because he is likely the last living disciple, we can view John thinking about how the church will remain faithful to Jesus when there is no longer anyone alive who actually walked and talked with Jesus. How will Jesus be remembered?
John is not alone in telling the story of Jesus. Three others also wrote about Jesus, but John’s account is very different. How so? We’ll talk about that in the next post.
When did John write this Gospel? To answer that question, we need to learn more about John’s life story. He was born into a fisherman’s family in the northern part of Israel, a region around the Sea of Galilee. He and his brother continued the family business.
One day John and his brother James heard the news about a man who was behaving like one of the prophets of old. In fact, people said this man was like the famous and revered prophet Elijah they heard about in synagogue readings from the Hebrew Bible. The prophet’s name was John also. John the Baptizer, rather, because he ministered along the Jordan River, calling people to turn back to God, a return that was symbolized by the washing of baptism. People journeyed to see this prophet. Droves of people. It was exciting, a time filled with promise because the reality was that life had been bleak for the Jews for centuries.
The powerful Roman Army controlled their land. Israel was occupied, and Rome had an iron grip. The Roman governor sat in the seat of authority in Jerusalem, and he reported to the Caesar, who was the emperor, the one truly in power, far away in Rome.
Under this oppression, Jewish expectation of deliverance was bubbling more and more to the surface. Groups of Jews would sometimes rebel against the Romans, striving for independence. But the Roman military was far too powerful. They would swiftly and brutally put down any uprising. The Jews remembered and longed for a deliverer like the man Judas Maccabees and his family who just a few hundred years prior had overthrown the Romans, and Israel was a free land for 100 years. But that memory was fading fast, so they Jews read the ancient prophecies which told of a deliverer, someone the Jewish people called the Messiah, the Prophet that Moses said would come. He was to be a king called “the Son of David” who would have an everlasting kingdom. They hungered and ached for such a one as this to come, just as God promised.
Then came John, baptizing at the river, calling people to repent and return to God. It sounded like John was behaving, at least somewhat, like the savior who God promised to come. So fisherman like John and his brother James went out to see what this baptizer was all about. They saw the crowds. The heard John preach with power and conviction. No doubt, he was unique. He certainly looked the part of what they read in their ancient scriptures about the prophet Elijah. John was a bit of a wild man. And he had a boldness to match, confronting not just the crowds to repent, but also the religious and political elite.
John the Baptist was the kind of guy you would be listening to, and he would be going off about the hypocrisy of the system, and you would be high-fiving your friends because someone was finally saying what you all pretty much wanted to say, but you were too scared to. You would be laughing at his jokes, and probably saying to your friends, “Can you believe he just said that???” Then you would be looking around at the Roman soldiers posted nearby to see if they were going to react to this. You’d think for sure John was going to be arrested, because in that day and age, you just don’t talk like that in public, without paying for it. You’d also be wondering at how long the religious leaders were going to allow this to go. They did not look kindly on self-taught prophets leading people apart from their system. In fact, it was likely the religious leaders who would report to the Roman leadership, pleading with the Romans to shut John down.
Then as the weeks went by, one day, something caused John to stop in his tracks. But it wasn’t the Roman soldiers and it wasn’t the religious leaders. That day, imagine a long line of people at the water’s edge, waiting for their turn to be baptized. One by one they enter the water, confessing their sins, and John dunks them in the river. Then after John baptizes a person, and sends them back to shore, he turns to the next person in line, and John’s eye open wide in surprise. John loudly makes this bold declaration, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Huh? What is he talking about?
Then the man steps into the water to be baptized just like all the others before him, and John tries to stop him, saying, “No, I cannot baptize you. I cannot even tie your sandals. You should baptize me!”
At that moment, you can imagine everyone in the crowd going quiet and listening. This was new. John had been baptizing thousands of people for probably a couple months, and this had never happened. John saying that this man should baptize him? What is John talking about?
The man persists, and so John says, “I baptize with water, but this man will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” John baptizes the man, and the crowd watching is amazed at what they see happen next. Later as they tell the story, and they will tell it over and over, they will say that they swear they heard a voice thundering, as if from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased,” and something like a dove alighted on the man.
Who was that man? Clearly, he was someone immensely special.
Did the two fisherman, John and James, see that moment when John the Baptist baptized that man? We don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. It was a moment that lasted no more than a few minutes, and then the man left, and wasn’t heard from again for about a month and a half. John the Baptist kept baptizing. The crowds kept coming, and the fishermen, John and James, went back to work, wondering what it all meant. Were things coming to a head? Was this Israel’s moment? Was God sending a deliverer? Was John the Baptist the deliverer? And who was that man that John said he was unworthy to baptize? What happened to him?
Let’s play a word association game. I’m going to write a word, and you write down the first word that comes to mind. What one word comes to mind when I say, “Jesus”?
God, Son of God, Cross, Resurrection, Christmas, Easter, Love, Friend?
All very good words that are associated with Jesus. But what words did Jesus use to describe himself?
I’ll give you a prompt, and you fill in the blank.
I AM __________.
I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Bread of Life. I am Living Water. I am the Vine.
Do you know where all of these I AM statements come from? The Gospel of John.
In this post we start a sermon series studying the life and ministry of Jesus, as told to us in the Gospel of John. This week we are going to get our bearings by trying to answer, “What is the Gospel of John?”
We get started with the author. If you read the Gospel of John from start to finish you will notice that the author never identifies himself. When I say, “himself,” I am intentionally identifying the author as a male. Though the author is technically unidentified, it is highly likely that the author is male, given the patriarchal culture of the era. It was exceedingly rare that women wrote books. Furthermore, the tradition of bible scholarship going way back tells us that it was Jesus’ disciple John who wrote this Gospel. There are multiple people named John, so which one are we talking about? Not John the Baptist. Instead we are talking about John who is identified in the other gospel accounts as John, the Son of Zebedee. Or John, one of the Sons of Thunder. The other Son of Thunder was his brother, James. They got that name because they could be a bit rambunctious. That alone tells you something about John. And we’ll come back to that in the final post this week.
In the Gospel itself, the author often refers to one of Jesus’ disciples by the title, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” The traditional viewpoint is that this disciple who Jesus loved is John, and it is he who is the author. So that phrase, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” we believe is John’s coded way of talking about himself.
But do you find that phrase odd? Is John being arrogant? “I am the disciple whom Jesus loved, look at me, listen to me, and love me!” If John is the author, and he is talking about himself that way, and he certainly doesn’t talk about the other disciples that way, it can sound like he is being a bit arrogant.
Can it be that Jesus didn’t love the others? Obviously that’s not true. Jesus loves all. But is it possible that Jesus loved John more than the others? Maybe, but doubtful. Within the Twelve, Jesus had a special relationship with Peter, James and John. There are numerous times when Jesus gave extra attention to those three. One time he invited them to join him as he entered a house to resurrect a girl who had died. Another time he invited them to hike with him up a mountain where they experienced the astounding miracle of Jesus’ Transfiguration. And if you aren’t familiar with what the Transfiguration is, check out what I wrote here. That event was wild, to say the least. Then at the end, right before he was arrested he chose Peter, James and John to stay closer by him, while he prayed in the Garden.
Of the three, while he groomed Peter to take over leadership, it seems he had a close personal relationship with John. It was potentially similar to a best friendship. Some scholars believe that John was just a teenager or young adult during the years of discipleship to Jesus, so perhaps John viewed Jesus from a fatherly perspective. What is clear is that John would have had a very unique experience of being close to Jesus.
But did this beloved disciple John write the Gospel of John? Possibly. We can’t say for sure. Some scholars talk about a community of the beloved disciple, who years later gathered his teaching and wrote it down. Maybe they were followers of the beloved disciple, who might have been John. For the purposes of this blog series, I am going to go with the traditional viewpoint, that it was this same John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, who wrote this account of Jesus’ life.
The same person wrote other parts of the New Testament as well: We believe it was John who wrote three letters, which are titled “1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.” We also believe it was this same John who wrote the prophetic book of Revelation. John’s three short letters show many similarities in language and purpose to his Gospel. If you read the Gospel of John, then read the three letters, you will likely sense that resonance. They just sound similar. His writing style, and you will find it the Gospel of John and the letters of John, has led some people to call John “The Dr. Seuss of the NT.” Why? His vocabulary is much smaller than other writers, and he often repeats phrases and ideas. That’s why, just as beginning readers will often read Dr. Seuss, students beginning to learn New Testament Greek often start with John.
Another important question we’ll begin to address in the next post is: When did John write this Gospel?
Can you prove that Jesus is God, that he was born, lived, died and rose again? Can you prove that he is who he said he is, and that he is who his followers said he is?
I have often wished that there was video evidence to help us prove it, but there is not. TV shows like The Chosen are encouraging, depicting what Jesus might have looked like, and how he might have behaved. He clearly wasn’t a white, European, as paintings and images of old would lead us to believe. Jesus was a Jew, so when you read Bible stories about Jesus, make sure the image in your mind is of a man with dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin.
Still, the dramatic productions of Jesus’ life cannot possibly do justice to who he was, so we’re back to the question of who he was. Can we prove him to be who he said he was? The answer is “No, we can’t.” In fact, that lack of 100% proof is the nature of faith. Faith is believing in something that we admit we cannot prove. If we could prove it, we would not have to place our faith in it.
But faith doesn’t equal blind faith. When we talk about who Jesus was, we are not talking about a fanciful made-up story that we must turn our brains off to believe. There is evidence that he is who he said he was. That evidence is a significant emphasis of the Gospel of John.
This coming week we are starting a new blog series through John’s Gospel, and with 21 chapters, some of which are quite long, this series will carry us long into 2023. We’ll take a break for Advent, for quarterly current events weeks, but we will work our way through this story of Good News about Jesus, as told to us by John.
Our goal will not be to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus was who he said he was, but instead to learn evidence that he is “the way, the truth and the life,” (John 14:6), and therefore conclude with John that we have very good reason to believe in Jesus (John 3:16) and abide in him (John 15:1-10), so that we might have both the promise of eternal life (also John 3:16) and experience his abundant life now (John 10:10).
My hope and prayer is that this study of the life of Jesus in the Gospel of John will help you both place your faith in him and grow your faithfulness to him.
If we aren’t waiting on some special missionary call from God (see previous post) and we are all called to love the world, does that mean everyone should travel overseas? Please don’t hear me saying that. It takes a certain maturity, a set of gifts and graces to be a good fit for living international. Not everyone has that gift mix, and that is okay.
But every disciple of Jesus is to love all, growing a heart for the whole world, which includes being a humble learner from our international brothers and sisters.
In what ways are you interacting with those who are from a different culture? Reading biographies is a great start. Watch international news. The BBC is a great source. Read missionary newsletters and the magazines about the persecuted church around the world, such as Persecution or Voice of the Martyrs.
Go to a place Southern Market in the city of Lancaster and order international food. Then eat the food. Ask God to grow in your heart a love for the world. Ask him to grow in your heart a love for people that mirrors his love for all people, seeing the beauty in the many different colors and cultures across the globe. Ask God to grow love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control for all the people of the world.
Maybe you can do what you do in another place. That’s exactly what a family from Faith Church did. They were a business teacher and a diesel mechanic teacher who moved to Africa to be teachers there. As time has passed, they’ve gotten into other roles and responsibilities as time went on. How about you? Could you use your skills, gifts, experiences and abilities to serve people from around the world?
Here’s the thing, though. We live in 2022, and I’m guessing you already knew this, the world has come to us. In my local elementary school the student body speaks 30 languages. My wife works with women from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East at Stroopies. Church World Service resettles refugees from across the globe to Lancaster. Perhaps my community is more diverse than yours.
But no matter, let us allow ourselves to follow God’s heart and open our arms wide to welcome everyone! If you live in Lancaster, Church World Service regularly needs help from churches and individuals. This is why Faith Church is about to launch teaching English language courses. What about you? How can you embrace the world around you?
What inspires us is the future vision of Revelation 7:
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’.”
God’s heart is for all people everywhere to enter into his blessing.
Is your heart in line with God’s heart for the world? Mother Theresa once said “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
She also said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
The world has moved into the neighborhood. What will it look like for you to share the Fruit of the Spirit with them? What will it look like for you to grow the Fruit of the Spirit in your relationships?
Are you called to be a global Christian? Think not? Keep reading, as I’d like to suggest that you are called.
God through Christ wants everyone on the globe to experience his blessings. What blessing? Jesus wants to experience the blessing of abundant life. Jesus himself said he came to bring abundant life, full life, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit the grows the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. As Paul will write to his ministry partner, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2:4, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God loves all. He wants all to experience his love.
Similarly Peter would write, in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
It is this belief, this mission that has fueled Christians to make disciples of all people, all nations, all ethnicities. It continues to motivate us to this day.
It is why we say along with Paul who wrote in Philippians 3:20, that we are citizens of heaven. Jesus is our King, and thus we distance ourselves from nationalism. Jesus is our King, and we pledge allegiance to him.
We make disciples of all nations.
We need other nations to disciple us.
We support the work of missionaries and sister churches around the globe.
We pray, we give, we go.
We support the work of eradicating injustice wherever it is found.
That’s why I believe the idea of a missionary call is something we Christians need to abandon. We are all already called. God, as we have seen in this week’s posts, has called us to participate in the mission of his Kingdom. How and where we participate is up to us. Don’t think you need to wait for God to reach out to you like you wait for someone to call you on the phone. You’ve been called, which I hope has been abundantly clear in this week’s posts.
If you love God and follow his heart and his ways, then love for others will flow from your heart and into your actions. Scripture and the example and teaching of Jesus repeatedly affirm that his disciples are people who love all other people. We even love our enemies, Jesus taught. In previous posts in the Relationships series, we talked about how difficult it can be to love others, including those close to us, let alone our enemies. So as we grow in our relationship with God, we will grow a heart of love for the world.
That begs the question, if we aren’t waiting on some special missionary call from God, and we are all called to love the world, does that mean everyone should travel overseas? We’ll talk about that in the next post.
In the previous post, we learned that God instilled in the ancient nation of Israel his heart for the foreigner, the immigrant, the stranger. What find as we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament is that God himself, in the person of Christ, took on humanity, was born, lived, died, and rose again so that all people could be in relationship with God.
Notice how the apostle Peter talks about this in one of his earliest sermons. Turn to Acts 3. I want us to read a longer section because Peter connects some dots for us that I think you will find meaningful. First, though, let’s remember the context. What is happening in Acts 3? This passage is very, very early in the life of the brand new church. It seems the church is perhaps a couple months old, or no more than a year.
But let’s go back to the beginning of the church, because before we see what Peter has to say in Acts 3, we need to remember God’s heart for the world in the earliest days of the church. For example, in Acts 1, Jesus gave final instructions to his disciples before he ascended back to the Father. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Notice the expansion. Jesus says the disciples are to proclaim his good news, first locally, but then regionally, and also globally.
This is right in line with Matthew’s account of what Jesus said maybe at the same moment, maybe a different one; the passage we call the Great Commission, in Matthew 28:16-20, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
What do you notice in both passages? God’s heart for all the people of the world to become Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus ascends to heaven, then 10-14 days later the Holy Spirit descends upon his followers, and the church begins. We read about that in Acts 2. We talked about that a few weeks ago, when we talked about relationships in the church family. But would the disciples abide by Jesus’ instructions to be his witnesses, sharing the story of good news, to the people around them, locally, regionally, and globally?
That brings us to Acts chapter 3. We read that Peter and John are doing exactly what Jesus said. Open a Bible and read verses 1-13 to see what I mean. After you’ve read those verses, come back and continue this post.
Do you see Peter begin to connect the dots for us? He says in verse 13 that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Peter reaches all the way back to the beginning of the history of nation. By mentioning the three patriarchs all the people listening to him would remember the God made a covenant with Abraham, saying that Abraham’s family would become a nation that would bless the world, which we talked about in the first post in this week’s five-part series. The people listening to Peter would also know that God repeated that covenant nearly verbatim to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and to Isaac’s son, Jacob. The people would also know that they themselves, though they were living nearly 2000 years after the patriarchs, were that same family and nation of Abraham. They would know that the covenant related to them.
We also heard Peter suggest something extraordinary in verse 13. He says that same God has glorified his servant Jesus. Peter connects the patriarchs to Jesus. But Peter is not done. Let’s continue listening to where Peter is going with this. Next read verses 14-16.
Where Peter previously connects Jesus to the patriarchs of the nation, he now says that Jesus is the Holy and Righteous One, which is barely coded language for saying, “Jesus is the Messiah of God.” Peter goes on to say that Jesus is the author of life, which is not at all coded language for saying that Jesus is God. Though the Jews conspired with the Romans to kill him, God raised Jesus to life.
This was not news for the people listening at the temple that day. It had only been a couple months, maybe a year since Jesus’ crucifixion. Everyone knew about it. Peter then says that the power of God that was at work in Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection was the same power that healed the lame man right in front of them. What Peter says would have been astonishing to the people in the crowd that day. Jesus was dead, and gone, but somehow he was alive and still at work? Where is Peter going with this? Let’s keep reading. He is about to put all the pieces together.
Read Acts 3, verses 17-26. And there you have it. Specifically, hear what Peter says in verse 25, “You are heirs of the covenant God made with Abraham that through your offspring all people on earth will be blessed.” Peter continues this theme, observing that God has raised up his servant Jesus to initiate that blessing, starting right there in Jerusalem.
Fast-forward again through the books of Acts, and we read in chapter 8, verses 26-40, about the missionary Philip preaching to an Ethiopian, an African. In chapter 10 and 11, God gives Peter a dream directing him to take the story of Jesus to all people, leading Peter to conclude, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 11: 34-35) As we continue reading, we find Paul and his missionary partners will take the story of Jesus across the Roman Empire. The other apostles did the same. Tradition holds that Thomas went to India. Major centers of the church were founded in Alexandria, Egypt. In Rome. In Antioch.
The Apostle Paul would write the following to the Christians in the region of Galatia, chapter 3:6-9, “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ [Genesis 15:6] Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ [Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18] So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
Then, as if to clarify what he meant, Paul, just a few verses later, says this, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Galatians 3:14)
Which leads Paul to conclude in Galatians 3:26-29, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
To put it simply, God through Christ wants everyone on the globe to experience his blessings of abundant life and eternal life.
Engaging Scripture 