1 John 1:5-10 walking in the light

1:5

The gnostic types had their high falutin ideas, but the apostles had direct experience of Jesus and preached a simply effective message.  “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. This would counter some of the gnostic nonsense.  We need to remember that the glory of the gospel is that it works.

1:6

God is light, so if we claim to have fellowship with God then we too must live in the light. The lives of the gnostics were questionable, to say the least. If we live in darkness, yet claim to be representing God we are liars and know nothing of the truth.

1:7

Instead we must walk in the light as He is in the light. Then we have fellowship with one another. Two key aspects to being true disciples of Christ are (i) fellowship with Christ; (ii) fellowship with fellow believers. We are purified by the blood of Jesus,

1:8

Claiming perfection immediately identifies us as liars and know nothing of the truth. 

1:9,10

This verse always amazes me. “He is faithful and just” The gospel is a gospel of forgiveness, Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteousness. The cross is the perfect and complete answer to our sinfulness. But it is not just a matter of forgiveness, but of changing us as well, “purifying us of all unrighteousness”. If we think that because of forgiveness we can do what we want and be forgiven, then this only serves to demonstrate that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel, we have missed it. 

1 John 1:1-4 - the Word of Life

1:1

There are similarities in the introduction to the start of John’s gospel. He speaks about the Word, and stresses that the word was from the beginning, i.e.  the Word is eternal, also it is the Word of life. John also stresses his personal experience of the Word, i.e. that which we have seen, looked at and touched.

1:2

The Gnostics may have had grand sounding theories, but John, and others, had direct personal experience of the Word. The Word came from the Father, note how much stress is put on this in John’s gospel.

1:3.4

John and the apostles proclaimed what they had seen, and his hearers could have the same fellowship, they were not some special select group, their fellowship was with the Father and the Son. And they were delighted to share this good news. The gnostic types presented themselves as somehow set apart.

Epistles of John - Introduction

Introduction - Epistles of John

Th author is generally taken to be John the Apostle, the evidence for this comes from writings by several of the church fathers, inclusing Irenaeua, clement, trtullian and Origen. There are also several rsylistic similarities with John;s gospel.

The first letter may have been a tract circulated around the churches in the Ephesus region, warning against false teachings, and the other two shorter letters warn against false teachers. John is sometimes known as the “apostle of love”, and his letter warns of the importance of demonstrating love in practical ways. At the same time he also stresses the importance of doctrinal purity, so often we put the two in opposition to each other. The Bible does not do this.  One of the false teachings was nascent gnosticism, and was one of the earliest challenges to the gospel. The essence was that the spirit was good and matter was evil. From this flowed five key errors:

•  The human body is evil;

• Salvation is achieved by escape from the body;

• Christ’s true humanity was denied;

• The boidy was to be treated harshly;

• Conversely, it could lead to sexual sinfulness.

2 John was written to give advice on dealing with travelling false teachers. As christians there is a tendency for us to want to be “nice” and non-judgemental. John’s letters demonstrate the naivety of such an approach. The Bible, and John’s letters in particular, have a much more balanced approach. 

Matthew 28:11-20 - The gospel goes forward

28:11-15

Looking at Matthew there is a very high “apologetic” element to his account, and this section is directly apologetic. I.e. it seeks to defend the reality of the resurrection against those who say it didn’t happen. We have already noted a number of points as we have looked at earlier verses, this section is overtly apologetic. The guards went to the chief priests to explain what had happened, , no doubt doing this rather shame faced, wondering how on earth they were going to explain things. From the fact that the chief priests gave them “a large sum of money” it would seem likely that the guards initially told them the truth of what they had experienced, or something pretty close to it. The chief priests could never cope with the truth, so they bribed the guards and told them to say the disciples had stolen the body. If we look back over the account we will note that several points make it clear that this did not happen. Ordinarily the guards would have been in enormous trouble, possibly even facing death. The Chief priests promise to clear things for them.

28:16,17

The disciples went to Galilee, as the women had instructed them. There they met Jesus and worshipped Him, but some doubted. Other gospels give a much fuller account of the encounters, especially Luke and John. “but some doubted”. People sometimes say if only they had a direct encounter with God they would believe. Well maybe they would, and maybe they wouldn’t. Our capacity to refuse to see the truth is enormous.

28:18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. This is one of the most important facts about Jesus. When we consider who Jesus is we absolutely must be aware of this. And its impact goes far deeper than expecting Jesus to heal or do other things for us or others. It must be fundamental to our whole worldview. Believing in Jesus is not just about seeking to be like Jesus, it is about knowing who He is.

28:19

The previous verse, the fact that Jesus has all authority, is the foundation for our going into the world to make disciples of all nations. Should we seek to convert Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists? Of course we should. Not because of an idea, but because Jesus is the One with all power and authority, so all people are called to be disciples of Him. They are to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our mission is a trinitarian mission.

28:20

“And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded them”. Obedience is central to the gospel, yet we so often forget this. We do not want to be “judgmental”. The Bible knows nothing of any “belief” that does not involve obedience. And Jesus will be with us to the very end of the age. We do not embark on this mission alone, Jesus is right there with us. And notice how the focus of 28:18-20 is all on Jesus. All too easily we will take these words and then subtly make them a man centred mission. This is a Christ centred, Christ driven mission.

Matthew 28::1-10 - Ressurrection

28:1-4

We now come to the resurrection. One thing to note is that the first witnesses are women. In the culture of the time a woman’s witness was considered to be worth less than that of  a man, so if the resurrection accounts were made up, surely the writers would have had men as the first witnesses. A stone had been placed across the tomb,  The presence of the angel is the explanation of how the stone was moved. The earthquake is something that everyone could have been aware of, so they knew something had happened. The angel is still there when the women arrive and tells them what has happened.  Verse 4 also makes clear that the guards were still there, so there was no chance of the body having been stolen.  As well as the spiritual lessons, Matthew seems to be making it clear that the empty tomb and the resurrection were real events. The guards became like dead men.

28:5

The angel told the women not to be afraid. This often happens with angelic appearances. It has often been pointed out that the fact the women were the first witnesses was highly significant. For in those days the evidence of women was less important than that of men. So if someone was making this up they would not have put women as the first witnesses. So this all lends to the authenticity of the accounts.

28:6

It is sometimes said the faith is believing things without any evidence, or even against the evidence. This is simply not true, and definitely not a Biblical view. So far we have evidence that Jesus is dead, and His tomb was sealed and guarded. Now the angel shows the women the empty tomb. The empty tomb is extremely important. If Jesus had not risen the Jewish authorities had a very simple answer to the rise of the church, pointing to the dead body. But they could not do this because there was nobody to point to.

28:7

The women were then told to go and tell the disciples, and to do this quickly. Note the importance given to women. This is an aside, but I consider the Biblical evidence for women not preaching to be rather weak. The message they were given was to announce that Jesus was risen from the dead. Remember that Jesus had told the disciples on several occasions that this would happen. Again, evidence would be provided! Jesus would go ahead of them to Galilee and there they would see the risen Jesus.

28:8

“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy.” Contrary to some who deny the resurrection, the first century people in Israel were not gullible folk believing anything. We have already seen that when Jesus had spoken about the resurrection the disciples basically had no idea what He was talking about. The women maybe had more of an idea, and were overjoyed that it seemed to be true, but they were also filled with fear for this was an absolutely momentous event.

28:9

Jesus Himself then meets the women. So the women were the first to actually meet the risen Christ. Note that they did not just see Him, they met Him, they interacted with Him. Perhaps it is better to say Jesus interacted with the women. This was true of the other recorded appearances. They were all more than just appearances, certainly not a sight of a shadowy figure a long distance off, but a very real meeting. The women clasped His feet. This was an act of humility, but also one that would show that Jesus was real. This was no ghostly apparition. They also worshipped Jesus.

28:10

Jesus repeated the command not to be afraid. This was good news! And the command to go and tell “my brothers” to go to Galilee where they would see Him. There are two things to note here. The first is that the women would be absolutely certain of the truth of their message. If they had not seen Jesus and had just told the disciples that they had seen the empty tomb and the angel, then the disciples may have come up with all the arguments that sceptics come up with, e.g. someone stole the body, wrong tomb, etc. But now they had seen and touched Jesus. He truly was alive. The second thing is the use of the term “my brothers” by Jesus. See the closeness of the relationship.

Matthew 27:45-66 - They think its all over

27:45-50

Darkness covered the land, we can perhaps see this as the wrath of God being turned on Jesus, God turning His back on Jesus. Jesus then quotes from Psalm 22:1. While this first verse is obviously important, we should also read the rest of that Psalm to get a fuller picture of what is happening. The “forsaking” was not the end. His words may have been somewhat indistinct for someone thought He was calling for Elijah. He was offered some wine vinegar, maybe out of compassion. Then Jesus gave up His spirit after a loud cry, which John tells us was “It is finished!”. In the words of that excellent song, “the wrath of God was satisfied”.

27:51-53

The temple curtain was torn in two, signifying the ending of the separation between man and God. Jesus had paid the full price for our sins. There was also an earthquake, and then we get one of the most enigmatic sections in the Bible, “and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people”. And I haven’t got a clue what to make of it!

27:54

We have here the witness of the centurion, and those with him, It is worth noting that it says “saw the earthquake and all that had happened”. This implies that the strange events of 51-53 were not a “narrative device”, but something that actually happened. So seeking to write it off because we find it so odd and difficult to explain is not a viable option. The centurion and those with him declared that Jesus was the Son of God. It was not just the centurion himself, but his fellow soldiers as well. Those who partook directly in the crucifixion were the first to recognise who Jesus is. And of course, they were gentiles. The gospel is for the guilty, regardless of race or gender or nationality. And we are all guilty. See also that “they were terrified”. Fear is part of a proper reaction to Jesus. It is not just “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”.

27:55,56

Most of the men come out badly in the Easter events. Judas and Peter, and the rest of the disciples, the religious leader, Pilate, the soldiers (prior to the previous verse). The women come out rather better. Here they are mentioned as watching from a distance. They are marked out as having cared for Jesus’ needs. 

27:57,58

Is 53:9 says that the suffering servant “was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death”. This seems inherently contradictory, yet it is what happened. He was on the cross between two criminals, now Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, gives Him his tomb. Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus. He had to approach Pilate, that would possibly have been a risky thing to do. So we see that while many of the disciples were not rich, some were. The gospel is for all and we need to utterly reject any teaching that rejects parts of society. All have sinned, and all are called to repent and believe, and all who so will be saved. 

27:59-61

Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in the tomb. This tomb had been cut out of the rock. A big stone was placed in front of the tomb. So the body was secure. And the two Mary’s were sitting watching. This counters two of the theories that deny the resurrection. One is that Jesus had not died on the cross, but had merely passed out and was later revived “in the cool of the tomb”. First the idea that Jesus had not died is itself ludicrous, the Romans knew how to kill people! But even if it was true that He had not died, how could He have escaped from the tomb, especially in the terrible physical state He would have been in? Another theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb on Easter Sunday. We see from here that they knew exactly where the tomb was, they had seen Jesus being placed in it!

27:62-66

“The day after Preparation Day” is the Sabbath. This further shows up the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, remember how many of their clashes with Jesus revolved around the Sabbath and not doing “work” on that day! Yet here they are going to the Roman rulers. They are fearful that Jesus’ words about rising from the dead might actually come true. It seems they were more aware of these words than the disciples were! They did not actually expect Him to rise, but thought the disciples might try to steal the body. So they requested that a guard be placed on the tomb. So Pilate ordered that the tomb be made as secure as possible. This counters yet another “theory” about the resurrection, namely that the disciples stole the body. This theory is pathetic. First, the guards on the tomb mentioned here made it impossible. If they had stolen the body it would surely have turned up eventually. Finally, how would a dead body utterly transform the disciples, and lead to a movement that impacted the Roman Empire and has gone on to impact the whole world?

Matthew 27:25-44 - Mocked aand crucified

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

27:27-31

If we look at the Easter accounts we see that everyone is implicated. The religious leaders and Roman authorities in the form of Pilate are the most obvious culprits, but the crowds, the ordinary Roman soldiers and the disciples themselves appear in a poor light. In this section it is the Roman soldiers who mock and abuse Jesus. He is stripped and dressed in a scarlet robe. A crown of thorns is put upon His head, all part of the mocking Him as the “king of the Jews”. He was spat upon and repeatedly struck. The robe was taken off Him and He was dressed in His own clothes again.

27:32-37

The victim had to carry the cross beam themselves, this is the source of Jesus’ phrase about carrying our cross. Jesus had been so beaten up that Simon of Cyrene had to carry the cross for Him. Jesus finally arrived at Golgotha. He was offered some wine vinegar to drink, but refused to do so. He was nailed up to the cross, and the soldiers then cast lots for His clothes. Note that Jesus would almost certainly have been naked on the cross. The whole crucifixion system was designed to utterly humiliate the one being crucified. The soldiers sat down and watched Jesus die.  A sign had been placed above Him saying, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”.

27:38

Crucifixion itself was not unusual, on that day there were two rebels who were crucified with Jesus. Easter tends to make much of the extreme suffering involved in crucifixion, and we certainly must not be unaware of that aspect, and it is important. However, there was nothing particularly unique about the physical suffering. So what was unique? What made it different? What made it different was who Jesus is. He is the Son of God, God incarnate. He did live a life of perfect, love, trust and obedience to the Father. He did take our sins upon Himself, He was made sin, and so He suffered the wrath of God, the righteous punishment, in our place. He paid the price for our sins.

27:39-44

“Those who passed by ...” There was nothing in Jesus nailed to a cross that was attractive (Is 52:14; 53:2). The passers-by, the ordinary people, mocked Him, denying that He could be the Son of God. The religious leaders mocked Him, and the rebels mocked Him. Everyone mocked Him. While in the act of rescuing mankind, mankind was in the act of insulting the One who could save them.