One In Jesus

(John 3:1-2 ESV) Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

John compresses the narrative here considerably. You see, to this point, Jesus has changed water to wine in private gathering and declined to give a sign to those who demanded a sign in Jerusalem at the Passover. We only have in John 2:3: “many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.” John doesn’t share the details with us at all. Continue reading →

The end of chapter 1 and chapter 2 of John include the calling of the apostles, the wedding feast at Cana, and the cleansing of the Temple.

The calling of the apostles

We’ve already considered the wedding feast at some length in the Introduction posts as well as in the verse-by-verse posts. So let’s look first at the calling of the apostles.

The apostles are, of course, very important characters in church history, and that fact alone suffices to explain why John included these (true) stories. But why only a few? Why not tell us about all 12? Continue reading →

(John 2:12 ESV)  ¹² After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

It’s hard to see the relevance of this verse to John’s narrative at first glance. Evidently, Jesus was not traveling with  his family until he ran into them at Cana. V. 13 tells us that Jesus traveled from Capernaum to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Continue reading →

Well, this should be fun. Everyone knows, of course, that the Spirit inspired this account in order to stimulate Bible classes to debate whether it’s okay to drink alcoholic beverages.

But then, given that drinking wine was not even a little controversial in the First Century, the author must have had something else in mind. And so, rather than delving into the alcohol question, I’ll refer the reader to the excellent work of Tim Archer over at “The Kitchen of Half-Baked Thoughts,” where he’s written a thoughtful series of posts on the Christian and alcohol founded on an in-depth study of the scriptures. Continue reading →

The theme of this series on John is to meet Jesus as a person. What is his personality? What are his passions?

You see, Christians are called to become like Jesus, the very image of God. And if that’s so, no study could be more central to our Christian walk than a study of Jesus as a person. Continue reading →

(John 1:43-45 ESV)  ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”  ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Bethsaida is a tiny fishing village near the Sea of Galilee. In that culture, especially in small towns, sons were expected to take up the trade of their fathers. Moreover, sons were expected to marry and raise a family in the same compound as their parents. A newlywed couple would move into a room literally built on the side of the house of the groom’s father. Continue reading →

(John 1:32-34 ESV) ³² And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.  ³³ I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’  ³⁴ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The author uses John the Baptist to transition from his presentation of Jesus as co-equal with God and co-creator to a narrative of events connected with the incarnated Jesus. Continue reading →