Tag: John 1

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Kingdom of Heaven (ACAD: John 1)

The Word Became Flesh

[aka God’s Thoughts for Humanity Manifested]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The Lamb of God

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed ). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter ).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

New Revised Standard Version: John 1:1-51 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=John%201:1-51&version=NRSV

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A Chapter a Day: John 1

Source: http://sharingthegoodnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/in-the-beginning.jpg
Source: http://sharingthegoodnews.files.wordpress.com

John 1, New Century Version (NCV)

Christ Comes to the World

In the beginning there was the Word.[a] The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered[b] it.

There was a man named John[c] who was sent by God. He came to tell people the truth about the Light so that through him all people could hear about the Light and believe.  John was not the Light, but he came to tell people the truth about the Light. The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world!

The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.

The Word became a human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth. John tells the truth about him and cries out, saying, “This is the One I told you about: ‘The One who comes after me is greater than I am, because he was living before me.’”

Because he was full of grace and truth, from him we all received one gift after another. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But God the only Son is very close to the Father,[d]and he has shown us what God is like.

John Tells People About Jesus

Here is the truth John[e] told when the leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

John spoke freely and did not refuse to answer. He said, “I am not the Christ.”

So they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”[f]

He answered, “No, I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”[g] they asked.

He answered, “No.”

Then they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to tell those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John told them in the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“I am the voice of one
calling out in the desert:
‘Make the road straight for the Lord.’” Isaiah 40:3

Some Pharisees who had been sent asked John:  “If you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet, why do you baptize people?”

John answered, “I baptize with water, but there is one here with you that you don’t know about.  He is the One who comes after me. I am not good enough to untie the strings of his sandals.”

This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing people.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him. John said, “Look, the Lamb of God,[h] who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One I was talking about when I said, ‘A man will come after me, but he is greater than I am, because he was living before me.’ 31 Even I did not know who he was, although I came baptizing with water so that the people of Israel would know who he is.”

Then John said, “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven in the form of a dove and rest on him. Until then I did not know who the Christ was. But the God who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and rest on a man; he is the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen this happen, and I tell you the truth: This man is the Son of God.”[i]

The First Followers of Jesus

The next day John[j] was there again with two of his followers. When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”[k]

The two followers heard John say this, so they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he asked, “What are you looking for?”

They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (“Rabbi” means “Teacher.”)

He answered, “Come and see.” So the two men went with Jesus and saw where he was staying and stayed there with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

One of the two men who followed Jesus after they heard John speak about him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (“Messiah” means “Christ.”)

Then Andrew took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas.” (“Cephas” means “Peter.”[l])

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, where Andrew and Peter lived. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

But Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

As Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is truly an Israelite. There is nothing false in him.”

Nathanael asked, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered, “I saw you when you were under the fig tree, before Philip told you about me.”

Then Nathanael said to Jesus, “Teacher, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus said to Nathanael, “Do you believe simply because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that.” And Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and ‘angels of God going up and coming down’[m] on the Son of Man.”

Footnotes:

a.  1:1 Word The Greek word is “logos,” meaning any kind of communication; it could be translated “message.” Here, it means Christ, because Christ was the way God told people about himself.

b.  1:5 overpowered This can also be translated, “understood.”

c.  1:6 John John the Baptist, who preached to people about Christ’s coming (Matthew 3, Luke 3).

d.  1:18 But . . . Father This could be translated, “But the only God is very close to the Father.” Also, some Greek copies read “But the only Son is very close to the Father.”

e.  1:19 John John the Baptist, who preached to people about Christ’s coming (Matthew 3, Luke 3).

f.  1:21 Elijah A prophet who spoke for God. He lived hundreds of years before Christ and was expected to return before Christ (Malachi 4:5–6).

g.  1:21 Prophet They probably meant the prophet that God told Moses he would send (Deuteronomy 18:15–19).

h.  1:29 Lamb of God Name for Jesus. Jesus is like the lambs that were offered for a sacrifice to God.

i.  1:34 the Son of God Some Greek copies read “God’s Chosen One.”

j.  1:35 John John the Baptist, who preached to people about Christ’s coming (Matthew 3, Luke 3).

k.  1:36 Lamb of God Name for Jesus. Jesus is like the lambs that were offered for a sacrifice to God.

l.  1:42 Peter The Greek name “Peter,” like the Aramaic name “Cephas,” means “rock.”

m. 1:51 ‘angels . . . down’ These words are from Genesis 28:12.

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Jesus is the Son of God.

 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth  but because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.

22 Who is the liar? It is the person who does not accept Jesus as the Christ [Messiah, Anointed One]. This is the enemy of Christ: the person who does not accept the Father and His Son. 23 Whoever does not accept the Son does not have the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has the Father, too.

24 Be sure you continue to follow the teaching you heard from the beginning. If you continue to follow what you heard from the beginning, you will stay in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what the Son promised to us—life forever.

26 I am writing this letter about those people who are trying to lead you the wrong way. 27 Christ gave you a special gift that is still in you, so you do not need any other teacher. His gift teaches you about everything, and it is true, not false. So continue to live in Christ, as His gift taught you. (1 John 2: 21-26)

I had a conversation Christmas night that was still reverberating in my mind the next morning.

The person was telling me that all religions that put god at the top are essentially seeking the same thing. The believers of these religions all believe in the same god. He went on to say that he is partial to Islam because it’s the religion that makes the most sense to him. He appreciates Jesus as a prophet. He acknowledges that Jesus came and did what He was supposed to do – as He was instructed to do by God. Then he went on to say that Jesus is no more special than any other prophet. No more special than Moses or Noah. All the prophets had a job they had to do, he said, and then continued, “My niece is running around saying today is God’s birthday… this is what I don’t get about Christians – how they can believe Jesus is God and that God was born.”

We both said at that point with equal smugness, “God doesn’t have a birthday.”

The last thing I wanted to do was have a debate about Jesus on Christmas. I’m not a Jesus scholar. I’m a Jesus believer. And as a believer, there are some things that I accept simply because they are, not because I can make sense of it.

One thing I intuit for sure, because of my belief and faith, is that God IS – He has always existed and always will exist. He is the creator of all things – seen, unseen, spiritual, material, emotional, physical, and psychological.

What the Bible teaches me is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Word of God. The Word of God existed at the beginning and the Word was with God. God created everything through the Word and the Word gave life to everything that was created. (John 1:1-5)

The person claiming Jesus wasn’t special beyond being a prophet didn’t allow me much space to speak. You know how those “conversations” go, where people are intent on speaking their mind, but aren’t interested in hearing anything on yours. So I had to interrupt him as he was going down the line of prophets and their assignments, “There is a hierarchy to the prophets,” I said. “Yes, they all had their own responsibilities, but Jesus is the only one called the Son of God. That makes Him more than just a prophet.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the one and only Son of God and it is only through Him that we can be adopted as sons and daughters of God.”

“Listen, LaShawnda, there’s no need to argue with someone who’s already admitted a belief in God.”

I was a bit bemused by the way he shut me down. But then I realized that most of the conversation was him saying what he wanted to say – I didn’t have the space to argue. As I write this, I realize that I said exactly what needed to be said.

10  He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.  (John 1:10-14, 16-18)