Notes on January 27
For those of you who missed the meeting:
Don added some comments to what I wrote on baptism, saying that rabbis had been baptizing new converts to Judaism in the time before Jesus came. The difference with John was that he baptized Jews for repentance.
After that, Pablito opened the meeting with prayer.
Then we looked at the second part of chapter 1. Ray started this by asking "How we wanted to be known by God."
Don reinterpreted this as "How can I grow in knowing God? How can I become, like David, a man after God's own heart?"
Eddie said that would happen by being obedient to God's prompting.
Ray made some comments about how he works with his kids to get them to obey. How can he encourage them to do what need to be done instead of driving them with the threat of punishment? As a father, his objective is to prepare the kids to move on and become adults.
I wondered how you train kids to become independent when we're all becoming more dependent upon God.
Ray asked "How do we want to be known by God?" I thought this was not the best question because God already knows us, but didn't speak up.
Eddie wanted to be known as an obedient child.
Don asked whether this meant we tried to bring the good things about ourselves to the fore, so that's what God would see. He thought a better way would be to move forward on the way to sanctification.
Ray mentioned that it might be more about self-awareness: what kind of person do we want to present to God? What's our desire? In any event, he said it was more important to do rather than make lots of claims about knowing God but not really doing anything.
Pablito said he wanted God to know him with all of his faults. The truth, negative and all. I would concur with that, it being true anyway. Hiding from God is, um, not easy. There's certainly peace to be found in God's true opinion.
Discussion became lively at this point and I couldn't keep up with notes. Pablito wanted God to strengthen him. Ray said the key to knowing what God wants is prayer.
I mentioned that self-judgment is deadly and that God is much better at telling us what's wrong. We tend to become vindictive, even on ourselves.
Then Eddie asked how do you know when God is speaking to you.
Ray said that we have the Holy Spirit to confirm what we hear, and we have the Bible. He also said it was important to wait for the Lord to speak.
Eddie amplified: "How does God make this individually clear?" He gave an example from his life, wanting to be at an appointment early, but God told him to wait. He didn't wait and got to the place well before it opened. He was upset that he was wasting his time.
Ray brought up the idea that Eddie hadn't wasted time: he'd gotten a lesson in practical obedience.
Discussion became free-wheeling after that. Ray mentioned the second half of the promise to Nathanael: "You will see greater things than these."
Don mentioned that he thought the whole question of how we want God to see us is irrelevant because he already sees us completely as we are. The question is really Do you want to know Jesus? The only way is to "Come and see," as Jesus told the first disciples.
Don asked what Jesus meant when he talked about the angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man, but no one rose to the question.
Ray talked some about the train wreck. Why did he miss it? Why was he spared? What's his purpose? The next day on his way to work he was in the car, looking at the sun rising through clouds, and realized he was there to see the beauty. He also wanted to be at this meeting.
Seeking lost sheep. Why did God choose any of us? He has to move in our hearts. Why choose us? Who chooses?
Pablito asked about plans: to what degree do you simply let go of plans and let God handle it?
I mentioned that I don't plan much of anything, for better or for worse. I didn't get the chance to say that I expect this to change as I learn to live with Jesus.
Pablito mentioned then that all the disciples had plans they were going to do before they met Jesus, who changed everything.
Ray mentioned Saul and how he became a follower of Jesus. Paul made plans but God sometimes changed them. Paul went where he could to spread the gospel.
Don came back to what Jesus said about the angels, saying that the angels coming and going on the Son of Man were like Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven, and the well-read Nathanael would have known this because it's in the Torah. He finished this by saying that it could be a figure of Jesus coming to us.
Eddie liked the idea of "Come and see." Explore, getting closer to God. He also asked for prayer so he'd do well on a test for a new job.
Ray asked for prayer for the move to the Caltrans building so that the circle can become wider. He wants to affect the people in that building too. He feels rather like a teen-ager moving to a new school
Don closed the meeting with prayer.
No plans were discussed for the next meeting.
Fig Trees Aren't Good Enough
"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." (John 1:48 NIV)
It's the real question. How am I known? There's one behind that, too. Do I want to be known?
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
(John 1:10-13 NIV)
How does God know all of us? Each one, completely and truly, to the depths of the individual soul. How much of what he sees in there would I rather hide?
God's eyesight ranges the timelines from beginning to end. A billion billion fig trees aren't enough to hide us from him; my vaunted invisibility is an illusion. It works among people more because of willful blindness than anything else.
How does he know me? And why would he bother? The sight can't possibly be beautiful.
Maybe he sees things differently. Some people look at my sand sculptures and see only the flaws, of which there are plenty. Perfection is impossible and under the time pressure of one day, one man and one sculpture I have to choose how to balance time against precision. I could make a simple sculpture perfect, spend 10 hours polishing the shape so that there are no bumps nor disruptions of the curves. The result wouldn't be worth looking at. I prefer to make a complex sculpture that has some rough spots and then defocus my vision a bit so the flaws aren't so obvious.
Maybe God does the same thing. Maybe Jesus hides our known flaws. He knows they're there, but he chooses not to look at them but at the complex growing beauty behind them.
How much of my self-esteem comes from imaginary fig trees? I live in a thick forest. God's esteem of me comes from his truth. He knows! There are no secrets from the Maker of the Universe. His knowledge leads not to self-hatred but to something else I barely begin to understand.
Depression comes from not being able to feel anything. Truth leads to feeling everything, which makes for more truth. Feeling bad isn't the same as depression; that can lead to depression but the phenomenon is different. Feeling bad means I'm alive. Depression means I'm dying, although our world prefers to think of depression as an invitation to take drugs. Anything to
feel good.
There's something about being known by God that crowds out depression. Life is at least lively. Painful, yes, but at least I know I'm alive. It's far from the old-style never really knowing when one day ends and the next begins, year after year with nothing really mattering.
Jesus knows what's under every rock, inside every bulging closet. He knows me. And he still cares.
2005 January 26
Baptism
I got curious about baptism while reading chapter one. Well, actually I'd been curious for a long time.
John suddenly shows up and starts baptizing people, and they seem to accept that. There's no history of it in old testament, so where did the idea come from? Why did John start doing it?
I did some research. It seems that in the period between old and new testaments, people had started doing something like baptism. Ritual washing with water had always been a part of the Jewish tradition, so it wasn't much of a step to baptism.
Apparently John took this idea and went farther with it, making it an act to show obedience to God. He baptized with water for the remission of sins. My guess is that this prefigures Jesus' actions.
It seems an odd sort of act. There are few visible acts one takes when becoming a Christian, so this would be the first act of following Jesus. Showing everyone that you're serious. It doesn't wash away sin, but it does show that a person is interested in following. A simple act that prefigures the more difficult ones that life leads toward.
My Notes On John Chapter 1
The first chapter of John is laden with a whole slue of doctrinal concepts:
God created everything. (v.3 without Him nothing was made)
He (God/Jesus) is the only source of salvation
Salvation comes only by faith on God (v.12)
The Trinity (Jesus and God are one and the same)
Jesus the fulfillment of the Law and Prophecy
Baptism (v.33)
Holy Spirit (v.33)
Sacrifice of God (v.36)
I love the question Jesus ask and plan to use it as a discussion question:
v.38 What do you seek?
Andrew brings Peter
Simon is called Peter the rock
Philip found Nathanael – We have found Him?
Nathanael asked “Can any Good thing come out of Nazareth?
And
How do you know me?
Jesus asks “Do you believe?”
The above questions are homework.
Word and Light
1. Who does John say Jesus is?
The Messiah, or Christ. Both words mean "Anointed One," which means one who, like a priest, had been separated from the rest of the people and marked out for God's service. Priests were anointed with oil to show that they were in God's service.
Describe what it means to you that He is the Beginning, the Word, and the Light.
The beginning: Jesus lived before the universe was made. He made it. He'll be here after the physical universe ends. I think he'll be able to handle whatever I can come up with.
The Word:
Jesus is God's life spoken into our world. He was spoken as the way for people to relate to God. Jesus also spoke our world into being: words into rock, water and living things. He's creative. He makes things. He remakes people, which is hopeful for us broken and burdened human beings.
The Light:
Jesus shows us the way. He lived before us, did everything we do, and did do perfectly yet he also knows what life is like. He was here. I can trust that the light he shows me is true and not put there just to make me stumble, or to show how stupid I am. He is light, and light leads to life.
2. Who was John the Baptist?
A man, born by a miracle, to make people ready to listen to Jesus. John was there to introduce the new idea: salvation directly from God, with direct contact by anyone who believed. John's water baptism was a symbol of what Jesus would do. John was the first, as far as I can tell, to announce to the world that Jesus was the Messiah, the one the Jews had been awaiting.
3. Who were the first disciples?
Two men who'd been John's disciples, or followers. They saw Jesus walking and decided to leave John and go with Jesus. They asked Jesus where he was staying, and were told "Come and see." Quite an invitation. Come and take a look. Not "None of your business," or "You're not good enough to know," or "Only after a long, arduous and expensive training camp." No, it was very simple: "Come and see."
Describe the person Nathaniel.
One of the other disciples ran into Nathanael and told him about Jesus. Nate decided to come and take a look, although he had a low opinion of anything to do with Nazareth. I guess the place had a bad reputation. Jesus told Nathanael that there was no dishonesty in him, the first time in history a big-time religious figure praised someone for telling the truth. Which means Jesus wasn't into religion.
Some Notes for New Bloggers
Those of you new to this way of sharing ideas might be a little confused as to what's going on. Here are some hints.
Blogger provides a basic text editor for entering messages. It has a spell checker and various other tools, given as icons at the top of the entry window. Most of them are self-explanatory, but if you can't figure them out, a standard mouse-hover over the button will give you a text description.
Note that you can use your favorite text editor or word processor to write message off-line, and then copy and paste the text into the Blogger entry window. This is good for people who get interrupted a lot.
You can leave comments on other people's entries. This is a good thing, like a time-delay conversation Just click on the comments link at the bottom of each post, and then click on "leave a comment" on the next window that opens.
As for what to write, do what you want. Ideas you want to share, personal notes, whatever. Just be advised that this is open to the public. Anyone who wanders in can read what you write, and then leave comments. The vast majority of comments are positive. You can look at other blogs to get examples of what people have written; either click on the "next blog" link at the top of the page, or go to
my blog and take a look. There are links on the left side to several other blogs and from those there are even more links.
Have fun!
Notes on January 13
The first meeting was lively. Pablito, Eddie C, Ray and me. We discussed the format and did some background on John, the writer of this gospel.
Ray pointed out that John was known as the "disciple whom Jesus loved." I asked him about that; did not Jesus love all the others? Ray said that there was a difference, and it came out in what John wrote. His stories have more human details, such as the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears.
Each gospel is different. Mark's was the first. Matthew is similar, but more detailed, and perhaps both derived from a "Q gospel" Ray mentioned. Luke was a doctor and a fact-checking historian. John wrote his gospel last in the series, and his point of view is that of an eye-witness to the events. He was there for all the major events of Jesus' ministry.
Ray asked what our favorite stories from this gospel are, with the idea that we should talk about those stories when the time comes.
Then we discussed goals, both for the study group and personally, for the year. As is well known I'm not much of a goal-setter, but the others had ideas.
Introduction
This year, we have decided to cover the Gospel of John. This is an exciting time for us and this is undoubtedly a great book. This book has a lot of depth to it. Yet, it is used to introduce new Christians into a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Never the less, this book is more then a Christian-premier. John contains some very deep theological concepts and some very simple truths.
When we compare the Gospel of John to the other Gospels we find that it stands out like no other book. The other Gospels are considered to be
synoptic. That is to say they give a general view of the life of our Lord. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, centers on the Deity of Christ. Of course, that is not to say that Christ is not deified in the other Gospels. He is. But, for the Gospel of John, this is the central theme.
The Gospel of John has been called “a different Gospel”.
Some background:
+ John was the son of a fisherman named Zebedee, and his mother’s name was Salome (see Mt. 27:56, Mk 15:40, Mk 16:1).
+ He is also called the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (the beloved).
+ He had a brother named James (Mt 4:21, Mt 4:22; Mk 1:19, Mk 1:20; Lk 5:1-10)
+ John was an “un-learned” man (Acts 4:13) but never the less gave us this remarkable book as a true miracle of God.
+ It is the Church tradition that John died in exile on the Island of Patmos off of Greece where he died around 98AD.
+ It is also tradition that this Gospel was written after the other Gospels were finished.
+ This had been called “The Spiritual Gospel”, “The Gospel if Incarnation” and “The Gospel of Love”.
+ John paints Jesus as the Great Comforter.
+ As a historical book John was an eye witness to the events around Jesus.
According to Scofield reference notes:
The book is in seven natural divisions:
1. Prologue: The eternal Word incarnate in Jesus the Christ (John 1:1-14).
2. The witness of John the Baptist (John 1:15-34).
3. The public ministry of Christ (John 1:35 - 12:50).
4. The private ministry of Christ to His own (John 13:1 - 17:26).
5. The sacrifice of Christ (John 18:1 - 19:42).
6. The manifestation of Christ in resurrection (John 20:1-31).
7. Epilogue: Christ the Master of life and service (John 21:1-25).
* Our task is to divvy out the leading of our weekly meeting.
* Each week we should agree to focus on a particular section in John.
* We should post our notes on the blog.
* Do not expose personal information on your blog entries.
* Do not gossip on the blog.
* Be as professional as possible.
* We should try to be prepared and not be scared or intimidated if we are not.
* Share from our own experience.
* Ask questions and lead discussion that leads us to a deeper understanding of this Gospel and mostly how it applies to our life.
Questions:
1. What are some of the goals you have for this year?
2. What are some of the goals you have for this group?
3. How can we achieve those goals?
4. Name one story in John that has impacted you most?
5. Name some friends that we as a group can pray for?
6. Is there anyone we know we would like to invite to our group?
Home work:
Read first chapter and answer the following questions:
1. Who does John say Jesus is? Describe what it means to you that He is the Beginning, the Word, and the Light.
2. Who was John the Baptist?
3. Who were the first disciples? Describe the person Nathaniel.
First Meeting
Today we'll be deciding which outline to use as a guide in this study. You should have received these from Ray.
I wonder, though, do we really need an outline? The problem with following someone else's outline is that you end up at the same place he went. Maybe we need to ditch the whole idea and make our own.
Collecting Notes on John's Gospel
Some co-workers and I have decided to go through the Gospel of John, and use this Blog to exchange notes and thoughts. If you have something you'd like to share, feel free to do so; the study is open to anyone who's interested in learning more.
