TOMS: John 3

For an introduction to this series, click here.

April 17, 2007

The first part of this chapter is one of the most famous discourses in all the Bible. Nicodemus, apparently one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin council, came to Jesus privately at night and tries to nail Jesus down, but Jesus does not play along with Nicodemus' questioning.

A minor point that I want to point out (in fact it may be an irrelevant point): Nicodemus says comes to Jesus and says, "We know you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." (3:2) (Note the plural) From the other gospels, we infer that Jesus was doing miracles left and right early in His ministry, and that's what the council was concerned about. To this point in his Gospel, John only records one miracle. At the end of chapter 4, we find John mentions Jesus healing a boy and calls it Jesus' "second sign." John admits at the end of the book that he did not record everything Jesus did, and this is proof. John had no intention of writing an exhaustive biography of Jesus. He was putting together an important picture of who Jesus was and why He came.

Jesus does not let Nicodemus hit Him with questions. Nicodemus tries to soften Jesus up by saying something nice about Him, and Jesus comes right at him: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (3:3) From this point on Jesus dominates the conversation. John only records two things Nicodemus said after this point: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" (3:4) and "How can these things be?" (3:9) Nicodemus probably intended to say more, but he was blown away by Jesus' wisdom.

I would like to know how John was aware of this conversation. John had connections with the upper crust of Jewish society, much more than the other disciples (other than his older brother, but apparently only John was invited into the high priest's house at Jesus' trial), so perhaps Nicodemus himself told John about this conversation. Or maybe John overheard it.

This is a very familiar passage, and I don't want to just tell you something you've already heard before, so I will briefly comment on something. There are many commentators who think the actual conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus ends at verse 15, and that 16-21 were added by John. (you can read them for yourself. I'm sure you are familiar with at least verses 16-18). Not that they should not be in the text, but that they should not be in red letters representing Jesus' words. We understand that the original had no red letters, quotation marks or anything else to denote spoken words. Something to think about. It is consistent with the way John writes his Gospel: providing commentary along with describing the words and actions of Jesus.

The end of this chapter has an interesting story about John the Baptist. The other Gospels drop John after Jesus' baptism and then mention his beheading. Here we have an interesting picture of the end of John's ministry. People are coming up to him and saying, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness--look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." (3:26) John responds very eloquently, saying that he is only the friend of the bridegroom, and that Jesus is the groom. John concludes by saying "He must increase, but I must decrease." (3:30, ESV)

John had lived out his purpose on the earth and was knowing the joy of accomplishing what he came to do. Other people, even John's disciples, were disappointed with how everybody was following Jesus and ignoring John. But John is satisfied. Very interesting and quite amazing. No wonder Jesus called John the greatest man who ever lived.

TOMS: Luke 3

For an introduction to this series, click here.

Feb. 13, 2007

Here we have a very in-depth discussion of John the Baptist. I know we discussed John earlier, but let's discuss him again. John's parents were very old when he was born, so he likely was alone at a very early age. He did live with them long enough to know who he was, the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. He was baptizing people in the Jordan River and presumably other streams in Palestine. This was the main problem the religious leaders had with John. Baptism was a symbol of conversion of a Gentile to Judaism, and here was John baptizing Jews, who in their mind had no need of baptism. But John had an important message: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (3:7-9, ESV)

It's not very good salesmanship to call your audience a bunch of snakes, but that's what John called them. I think it's safe to say that it was more acceptable to use outrageous language a long time ago than it is in our time. Jesus of course called people all sorts of things, and His enemies called Him worse things back. Call it political correctness, call it what you will, but it is true that people accepted such insults as part of public discourse back then, and they don't now. I have heard of a some preachers who curse and call people names in the pulpit and defend themselves by saying Jesus used that kind of language. Perhaps He did, but we are living in different times. We don't "greet the brethren with a holy kiss" anymore either, even though at least four times in the New Testament Epistles the Apostles told the recipients to do so. (So much for "If God says it more than once, it must be really important.") There are some things that we need to adapt to our own culture if we are going to be effective.

But the main point of John's message is that Israel needed to repent. It's not good enough just to be in the physical lineage of God's people. God's plan of salvation has always been a personal matter. Even in the Old Testament, when God had special dealings with the Jewish nation, they were not the only ones who followed the Lord. Look at Hiram, king of Tyre, who gave millions in gold and other supplies for Solomon's Temple. Job was not a Jew, neither was Nebuchadnezzar, who apparently wrote the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel. Jethro, Moses' father in law, is another example. There are also examples like Rahab and Ruth, Gentiles who became part of the Jewish nation. And then of course not every Jew ever was or is now converted. The message throughout the prophets, and indeed the entire Old Testament is one of personal accountability and personal faith in God.

Luke also includes a genealogy of Jesus (I always want to put an extra "o" in "genealogical"). This one is different from Matthew's genealogy of Joseph, and most scholars believe that this genealogy is that of Mary. Apparently Mary was a descendant of David's son Nathan instead of Solomon, as Joseph was. I don't know. There's some people who can talk for hours about the interesting things they find in genealogies. I'm sorry, but I can't. They just seem like a bunch of names to me.

TOMS: Luke 1

For an introduction to this series, click here.

Feb. 11, 2007

The book of Luke opens with a dedication to Theophilus. We are not sure who Theophilus was, other than he is a believer and his name means "lover of God." Maybe he was a rich man who paid Luke for his work. He seems to be an important person, maybe he was a governor or some sort of government official.

Luke is the only writer who gives us any detail about the family of John the Baptist. His father Zechariah was a priest. When the levitical priesthood first started, there weren't that many priests. They all had a lot to do. But as the generations passed, there were so many priests they had to take turns doing service in the Temple. The priests were divided into families, and each family served a certain time of the year, I think a month. Luke tells us that Zechariah was chosen by lot to offer the evening incense. This would have been a rare honor, maybe the only time in his life he would have had the opportunity to do this. Of course Zechariah saw an angel who told him that he was going to have a son in his old age.

One observation I have made is a kind of humorous detail in the story of Zechariah. When Zechariah questions the angel, the angel pronounces a curse upon him: "And behold,you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” (1:20) Then when John is born 9 months later, Elizabeth, John's mother, informs the people around that the baby is to be named John. The people around are surprised, "and they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, 'His name is John.'” (1:62-63, ESV) The angel said nothing about Zechariah being deaf, yet even his close friends apparently assumed that since he couldn't speak he also couldn't hear. Just a funny observation.

Meanwhile, Mary was about to learn something that would change the course of the world. I have always wondered what Mary told her folks, and what they would have thought. Of course no one else in history has ever had a virgin birth. It probably wasn't easy to explain. The fact that Mary went to see her "relative" Elizabeth (they must have been related through their mothers, since Elizabeth was a Levite and Mary was of the tribe of Judah) tells us that things might not have gone too smoothly.

The end of this chapter has two great psalms of praise- one from Mary and one from Zechariah. They are filled with prophecies about Jesus and how He will bring in the kingdom.