Month: March 2021

John 2.23 – 3.2

Do you understand people who are reluctant to speak in a public forum? A personal fault of mine is not readily appreciating what a barrier that is for many. I am subject to the other personality trait and am too readily prone to speaking out. For me it goes with my learning style which is strongly bent towards engaging in debate, while others may much more happily be outwardly passive learners keen on listening and observing. In a constructive, supportive, nonthreatening environment all personality types can flourish. However all too frequently life is not like that and the context in which we live can carry heavy penalties if we openly speak our mind or indeed at times do not openly speak up for particular people or ideas. I think of a time when the newly invested President of the USA ask his closest advisers and ministers sitting around the table to each say how great he was. It reminded me of Nebuchadnezzar. In the one case their job was on the line in the other their life. Nicodemus’ desire to find out more about Jesus must have been a bit like that. ‘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 3.2} He had come under the cover of darkness, God’s Spirit prompting him to enquire further.

Nicodemus along with many of the other Jewish leaders had witnessed many signs performed by Jesus during his visit at Passover to Jerusalem. Many believed in Jesus because of these signs, (John does not record what miracles they were) but Jesus was not convinced about the long term sincerity of their belief because of man’s inherently sinful heart. ‘But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.’ ^John2.24,25 The Jewish religious leadership, of whom Nicodemus was one, were highly antagonized by Jesus’ teaching and actions. At the same Passover he had cleared the temple of traders and then spoken of the temple’s destruction and how he would raise it in three days. If one was a member of the religious leadership one would be very unpopular and risk one’s personal standing by expressing interest and respect for Jesus. So, Nicodemus came at night. Nicodemus was a seeker after God and he recognized God at work through Jesus. We can be confident that in the end Nicodemus became more than a sympathizer, he became a disciple. ^{Jhn 7.50-52, John 19.38-42}

Nicodemus’ hesitancy about enquiring after Jesus is a very common thing. Nicodemus was genuinely enquiring, he wanted to know more and he wanted God in his life. There are many like that and there is considerable anecdotal evidence that Covid 19 has increased the level of interest. There has been a reported 20% increase in the numbers attending church by virtual means. Alpha reports more people than ever before attending their courses. What are the factors behind this? Partly it is a response to greater awareness of mortality and how we are not as in control of our lives as we once thought and partly because virtually we can as it were come at night with no one knowing. Whatever the case the Holy Spirit is at work in people lives prompting them to seek and ask.

Jesus provides us as a church with two important examples. He was active and known, publicly ministering to people’s needs in the power of the Holy Spirit. His identity and ministry was not hidden or secret. He demonstrated God’s purposes in his life and words. He did not let difficulty, opposition or hardship prevent him from obedience to the Father. Seekers knew who to go to, to find out more.

Jesus made himself available even at night. He was approachable. He did not have a private life that came before his ministry. He was wholly available to God’s will.

How does this challenge us individually and as a church?

KING FOREVER (ACOUSTIC)

John 2.13-22

The Temple in Jerusalem during Jesus’ ministry was not the temple built in Solomon’s reign, it was the third temple and even though the Temple authorities said it had taken 46 years to build ^v20 the outer structures were not completed until AD 66. Prior to Solomon a temporary tent like structure was where the Ark of the Lord was housed, containing the tablets of the covenant, a golden urn holding manna and Aaron’s staff that budded. ^{Hebrews 9.4} David dreamed and planned for the day when a permanent temple would be built, in his eyes it was to be grand enough to be worthy of the Lord. The temple was for the nation of Israel a number of things. It was a sign of God’s presence with his people. It was where the people through the offices of the priests could meet God and seek counsel. It stood for God’s authority over his people. The temple honoured God and was where the great feasts to give thanks and praise to God were centred. Longing to be in the temple equaled longing to be in God’s presence. Above all it was the place of sacrifice to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with God. The temple represented the heartbeat of the nation therefore its destruction under Nebuchadnezzar tore the heart out of the nation and was considered by Israel’s enemies not only a defeat for the people of Israel but also for their God. The temple was the ultimate symbol of nationhood and the nation’s relationship with Yahweh.

When Jesus cleared the Temple, the complaints were not about brutality towards either people or animals. They were not even about the mess created. The whip of cords ^v15 Jesus made was not comparable to the whip used to scourge Jesus, ripping flesh from his back, it was a means of driving animals from the courtyard. Little did the Temple authorities know but they cut to the heart of the matter. In asking, ‘What sign do you show us for doing theses things’ they were asking by what authority did he challenge the “Father’s” house being used for trade.

Jesus’ answer was not understood by any present at the time. It took Jesus’ resurrection for the disciples to grasp his meaning. ^v22 The Temple authorities limited imagination was restricted to a Temple of stone. They had lost sight of the Temple being the symbol of God’s presence, the place of reconciliation, teaching, intercession and God’s transforming blessing. In Jesus’ answer he was stating that he is the eternal Temple of God. Only through his death and resurrection three days later would all these things be possible. All the previous rituals would be swept away. God is met through him wherever one was geographically. No physical building is required. Jesus left just two acts of remembrance and

Commitment, the bread and wine of the last supper and baptism. Each needed no set place or even a building of any kind. The only priest needed was the High Priest Jesus. ^{Hebrews 4.14}

The first place I truly met Jesus was in my study bedroom at college, aged 18. He placed in me the faith, I had been wanting for some weeks, through his Spirit. Where can you first remember engaging personally with the Lord? He and he alone is our access to God, who is truly a universal God, not constrained by buildings, geography or time.

There are many things during history that the Christian Church has promoted as “Temples” and necessary for access to God. There then occurs a reaction against them that frequently divides the church. It may be a physical church where some feel they have to be there to pray. It could be a ritual or ceremony. It may be a particular kind of musical atmosphere is deemed necessary. The presence of a religious leader may be seen as a means of accessing God’s blessing and even biblical knowledge as the ultimate goal rather than as a means of meeting with God through his Spirit.

What difference does it make that Jesus, and not a building, is our temple; and that access to God is through him, and not through religious ritual?

Be still for the presence of the Lord

John 2.1-11

Politicians do it all the time, when they have an announcement they pick the background setting to emphasize the message. In just the last week we had the prime minister crawling on a primary classroom floor to encourage parents to send their children back to school and then wearing a hard hat and luminous jacket to announce the reopening of Appledore shipyard. Of course, it can go ridiculously wrong such as when the prime minister was filmed hiding in a refrigerator to avoid questions. The PR people talk of getting the optics right. If then you were the Son of God and you wished to select the place for your first sign of the coming of your future kingdom, where would you pick? As it is a kingdom perhaps a palace would be ideal or maybe the temple. If instead of a building one wanted a natural setting how about the top of Mount Sinai with all its historical associations with the giving of the law. In addition, judging by modern leaders there would be some announcement to attract the crowds. The audience would be carefully selected to ensure the contemporary leaders were present to provide their endorsement.

Contrast this with Jesus who chose the wedding of an unnamed couple in a minor town in Galilee with no greater witnesses than his family and new disciples. When he changed the water to wine it was done without fanfare so the master of ceremonies did not even know it was happening. Yet it was this humble event and setting that has been recorded and preserved over two millennia. Jesus indicates the reason for the low key nature of the miracle is that people’s misconceptions about the coming Messiah would lead to unhelpful responses. However, this did not prevent Jesus performing numerous miracles or signs in the course of his daily ministry. John records that this was simply the first of his signs. ^{v 2.11}

The importance of the setting of a wedding is the place marriage has in the symbolic relationship God has with his people. The theme of marriage runs from the beginning of Genesis ^{Genesis 2.24} into Revelation ^{Revelation 19.7-9} as a God ordained relationship. Humans are made for intimate relationships that reflect the fellowship the Godhead has within themselves. The faithfulness of the marriage is intended to reflect the faithfulness of God to his people. In the Old Testament this is particularly the message of Hosea, where God through Hosea’s marriage demonstrates that he is faithful even when his bride is not and reconciliation between God and man is always possible.

A Christian marriage is intended by God to be in itself a witness to God’s faithfulness to his bride, his people. “Paul tells us that marriage is a mystery designed by God to show us Christ’s love for the church.” (Josh Moody, John 1-12 for you.) ‘Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ ^{Ephesians 5.25-27}

How then does a marriage reflect Jesus’ love for the church and how can the marriage partners foster that loving faithfulness for the rest of their lives?

What challenges are presented when only one of the married couple is a disciple of Jesus?

What pastoral support do we provide as a church for married couple to be a witness to the faithfulness of God?

Faithful one – Brian Doerksen

John 2.13-25

Is it true for you that the industry that surrounds religion including the Christian faith is a problem? Does it in any way create a barrier to faith for either yourself or people you know. If so, is the problem where established churches appear to be wealthy and the wealth is not used for the purposes their teaching would lead you to expect? Is it that the churches money is focused on the wants and needs of church members and not on the gospel message and needs of non-church members? Could it be that you believe you cannot trust the people in power in the church to honestly manage the finances? Is it that you believe the business of religion has relegated gospel living and sacrifice to a small dusty back seat in the corner of the church, so much that you believe if Jesus walked in the church he would not recognize it as a people of worship?

Following the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus, his family and disciples go back to his Galilean base, Capernaum, but he only stays there a few days before heading off to Jerusalem for the Passover. ^{John 2.12,13} John mentions Jesus attending three separate Passovers and there is some disagreement as to whether there were one or two occasions when Jesus “cleared the temple”. The other gospels record a similar event in the Passover week of his death. Has John reorganized the order of events to structure his teaching for symbolic and conceptual reasons? This may be so but we cannot be absolutely sure either way. Certainly, conceptually this account fits in well, just before the visit of Nicodemus, as it deals with religion being a barrier to a relationship with God.

When Jesus entered the outer courtyard of the temple in Jerusalem, known as the Court of the Gentiles what did he see? It was noisy, thronging with people doing business selling animals for sacrifice and exchanging currency for the correct money to pay the temple tax.  ^v14 The business itself was not illegitimate it was where and how it was being done that was wrong. It made sense that people who had travelled great distances, often on foot, bought their sacrifice to worship God on arrival. The payment of the Temple tax was not in itself wrong but by insisting that it was paid in specific Temple currency and then charging exorbitant rates was exploitative of worshippers. The temple was being run for the benefit of the insiders preventing them from being the light to the world that God intended them to be. They had effectively reversed the intentions of God and the place of prayer set apart for all to worship in had become a noisy market place where prayer and worship were no longer possible.

Jesus drove out the animals and stall holders because they had become a barrier between ordinary people and God. These were frequently God fearing people who had come in humility seeking forgiveness. God fearing is how the New Testament described genuine Gentile seekers after God who were not Jews. ^{Acts 17.4} The court of the Gentiles was where such people could come and worship but in the eyes of the religious authorities they were inferior to those born a Jew. They were presented with unnecessary additional barriers for the profit of the religious authorities. Contrast that with Jesus’ own responses to such people as we will see later in the gospel. Before we consider how Jesus prophesied that he was the way to forgiveness and a relationship with God it is worth thinking of the many ways the Christian church has created self-seeking additional barriers to forgiveness and a relationship with God. This can be in the form of hierarchies, rituals, legalism, language designed to exclude and moral depravity.

Have you experienced the church placing barriers in the way of simple faith in Jesus?

Have church rituals made it difficult for enquirers after Christ to feel welcome?

Do we place moral integrity as an essential characteristic for continuing in Church leadership?

How closely do we align church finances with gospel priorities?

Holy ground – David Bilborough

John 2.1-11

How good are you at taking the right gift when you have been invited to a meal or party? Are you a grab a quick bottle of rioja red wine and a bunch of artificially bright flowers from Morrisons type of person or do you ponder deeply and try to find a gift that fits the hosts just perfectly? I’ll leave you to guess which side of the divide I fall on but I have to say Morrisons is very reasonable when it comes to wine and flowers, or so my Mother said. Weddings are a particular challenge, especially if one is one of those marginal guests and somehow all the presents on the John Lewis website that come under the ‘I can just about afford that’ category went three months ago. It’s funny how what is a suitable gift has changed over time. I can remember when duvets were a big thing, I don’t mean literally as in Super King Size, I mean that most people still fought over blankets and sheets and duvets were strangely European and exotic. Towels always seem a safe bet, but the poor ‘newly weds’ probably never get to actually choose a towel for the first thirty years of marriage and they never match the bathroom décor. Truly a first world disaster. Cheeseboards were the present of choice at my daughter’s wedding.

I wondered if there was any helpful biblical advice for this type of eventuality. Luke records these words of Jesus,‘give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.’ ^{Luke 6.38} Brilliant advice, if expensive, but then I realized that this giving was even more expensive than I realized at first sight. Give did not have a capital letter in the bible, it was preceded in the same sentence with: ‘Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;’ giving according to Jesus is much more costly than might be thought if scripture is taken out of context.

The thing about Jesus is he lived what he taught and as he was God incarnate both what he said and did revealed the purposes and nature of God. All this brings me back to the wedding in Cana. Jesus turns up with his Mum and his newly found disciples. The party had probably been in full swing for a day or two, weddings were commonly a week long affair. They hadn’t been there long when an embarrassing situation developed, the wine had run out and there was no Morrisons round the corner. Mary turns to Jesus, and this is where Mary is much more in the know than anyone else, after all she had been told all about Jesus even before conception, so she makes one of those observations that are really a question and an instruction. ‘They have no more wine.” ^v3 Jesus doesn’t seem to be too happy about being put on the spot. I can just imagine the look he got from Mary when he came out with, ‘My hour has not yet come.’ ^v4 She ignores him and speaks directly to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ ^v5

Jesus does what Jesus is, over abundantly generous, kind and loving he turns water out of vessels for ceremonial washing into the finest of wines. Not just a couple of cases but gallons and gallons and gallons. Of course, this is packed with symbolism, the washing ceremonies and sin offerings of Judaic religion in those days were going to be replaced by the cleansing and forgiveness that never needs repeating. Wine in the Old Testament was a repeated symbol of God’s abundant blessing and the removal of reproach. ‘The Lord had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach amongst the nations”.’ ^{Joel 3.18,19} This was a forerunner of the new covenant wine which Christians celebrate every time they remember death of Jesus with bread and wine.

What a joyous thing it is that the first sign of the glory of Jesus is a super abundant gift, miraculously achieved because he is also the creator Word of God.

Is your vision of Jesus as the super abundant generous bringer of joy?

Has the Spirit of God worked in your heart to make you a giver of gifts, pressed down and shaken, a forgiver as well as forgiven?

Joy – Rend Collective (Wait for it)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VDiETOLBvxA%3Flist%3DPLcj8l6w_IlvMpX_TzgcBL_2YEDFX0tRvO