On this day two thousand years ago - Part 2 A day when we can do nothing

Part 1 can be found here.

Easter Saturday, a day of nothingness, of emptiness. In churches on Good Friday we remember the price that Jesus paid for our sins on that cross; on Easter Sunday we rejoice in the resurrection, the victory over sin, death and the devil. But on Saturday, what should we do?

Let’s consider the various protagonists we considered in yesterdays “On this day”. What about Pilate? Well that was another riot averted, another problem solved. Solved in a rather bloody and unsavoury manner, but this is the Roman Empire, this is the way we operate. And guards are placed on the tomb just in case anyone has any daft ideas.

The Jewish religious leaders breathe a sigh of relief. This troublemaker of the past three years has at last been dealt with and he won’t be coming back. Now we can get back to being the respected religious leaders we deserve to be.

Eleven disillusioned disciples, numb with shock and fear. All seemed so wonderful at times, amazing things happened, but now Jesus is dead. Will they come after us next, or we will just try and return to our old everyday normal lives? Numbness and emptiness. What was the point of it all?

Then there is Judas. He had betrayed Jesus but is now dead, having killed himself. He gave Jesus up for a pittance, but at the time it seemed so easy. It seemed so attractive. Jesus was leading them nowhere. He had pilfered money from what was meant for the poor. Handing Jesus over would solve the problem of him ever being found out. But once the deed was done, the sudden realisation of what his actions meant. Suddenly the blindness that had covered his eyes is removed and he can see the horror of his actions. And isn’t sin like that? It seems so reasonable, so irresistible, so attractive. But once the deed is done the awfulness, the problems, the price of sin becomes all too apparent.

Finally there were the women who had followed Jesus. Here was a man who at last appeared to value them, and the women had been so faithful to him. Then they had had to see him die in that horrible way. There isn’t even anything they could do for it was the Sabbath. On Sunday they would go to the tomb and prepare his body properly, but today they could not even comfort themselves by doing things.

It is so appropriate that the day between the crucifixion and the resurrection was the Sabbath. A day when we can do nothing. God had instituted the Sabbath not for the miserable purpose the Pharisees thought, an excuse to have rule upon rule. It was a day of rest, a day to remind us that we belong to God, that we are dependent upon Him for absolutely everything. There is a time for work, a time to plan and do things, and very soon the disciples, male and female, would be working harder than they had ever worked before. But there is a time when we just need to trust God.

Looking at the people we have considered above, all of them were wrong. None of them understood what had actually happened on the previous day, and none of them knew what was about to happen and the consequences it would have. There are times in our lives when we are in mourning or in shock, when there is emptiness. We think we know what has happened, we think we know what the future is. But we don’t.

A day when we can do nothing.

1 John 2:12-14 - Children, fathers, young men

2:12-14

The next three verses refer to children, fathers and young men. This can be taken as either referring to the natural age of people, or to the spiritual maturity of people. Or it may be a mixture of the two. In this case “dear children” refers to all believers, with Jon expressing his affection for them. Fathers then refers to mature believers, and young men to younger believers.

It is not that crucial which of these lines one takes, there are things to be learnt from all that is written here.

Our sins have been forgiven because of Christ. False teachings will often seek to use guilt or doubt as a means of worming their way in, sowing uncertainty. John assures his readers that their sins are already forgiven. Moreover, they know the Father. Of course, we need to know Him better, and can know Him better, but we do already know Him. If someone is claiming to offer some sort of deeper knowledge, as the gnostics did, we can safely reject their claims.

To the fathers, John repeats that we know Him who is from the beginning. We know the one true God, the eternal Lord. The One by whom all things were created.

We have overcome the evil one. If we are in the Lord then we are strong, the Word of God lives in us, and so we overcome the evil one. We do not need to be afraid of evil in the world. We are right to be horrified by it, because of its terrible effects, but we do not need to be afraid. As John will say later, the One who is in us is stronger that he who is in the world. We overcome the evil one.

The Place Nobody Wants to Go - A Sermon on the Cross

A sermon on the cross

On this day two thousand years ago - Part 1

On this day nearly two thousand years ago three men were crucified in Jerusalem. There was nothing too unusual about this, the Romans crucified lots of people. Two of the men crucified were known criminals, but one of these men, Jesus Christ, was different. The Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, didn’t really want to crucify Jesus, but those Jewish leaders were insisting that Jesus was a threat. Pilate investigated the matter, but still couldn’t find anything wrong with Jesus, no reason why he should be crucified. This held no sway with the Jewish leaders. Pilate’s wife warned her husband that the matter was dangerous. Pilate hadn’t asked to be in this situation, but here he was. What to do about the dilemma? At this time of year it was the custom to release one prisoner, so he offered the crowd Barabbas, a well known good-for-nothing, or Jesus, the man who had gone around doing good and healing people. Surely this would solve the problem? But no, the crowd wanted Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. The last thing Pilate wanted was a riot, it was more than his job was worth. So Pilate adopted chose expediency over principle and agreed to crucify Jesus. He sought to wash his hands of the matter, but there is no washing our hands in relation to Jesus, we need to make a definite decision.

The religious leaders were delighted, this truly was a good Friday as far as they were concerned. They were the religious elite, holding positions of influence and honour in society, a time when religion still mattered in civic life. Jesus threatened all that. Why? Because he was so different, so much better. There was no hypocrisy in him, just pure love and obedience to God. Moreover, he went around healing people, setting them free. And to make matters worse he issued periodic tirades against the religious leaders, highlighting their hypocrisy. And all of it was true! How better to solve the problem than to have this man killed? The tragedy is that if they had admitted their guilt and repented they would have found Jesus so welcoming, so willing to forgive. They would have received eternal life. Instead they had Jesus killed and eternal death became their destiny.

Jesus had disciples, and they thought this was a day of disaster. They had left livelihoods to follow this man, and things had been good for a couple of years or so. But then he started telling them he would be handed over to the rulers and put to death. How could this be? He also mentioned something about rising from the dead, but they had no idea what he was on about on that score. No one came back from the dead.

But there was one man who seemed to be in control. On the evening before he had been in agony in the garden of Gethsemane, asking his heavenly Father if there was any other way, but both of them knew there wasn’t. The events of good Friday would literally be excruciating, physically, emotionally and spiritually, but Jesus was committed to doing the Father’s will, and from that point on he was absolutely resolute. He seemed to know what was going on. You see, only Jesus truly understood the depth of the problem with humanity, the depth of the problem with you and me. Only he understood how deep and pervasive the twistedness inside us goes, how deep the sin goes. And he knew that by going to that cross he could deal with the problem, he could get to the root of the problem with you and me. No papering over the cracks, but really deal with the heart of the matter.

On that day people saw this man on the cross, they saw the physical torture that was crucifixion. But what they did not see was that Jesus was also carrying all our pain, all our suffering, and above all else, all our guilt. The punishment that should have been ours was being placed on Jesus, the only truly innocent man to have ever walked this planet.

On this day some two thousand years ago we were being healed.

1 John 2:9-11 - Still in the darkness

2:9

God created us in His image. For everything we see in the Bible there is both the vertical and the horizontal, ie our relationship with God, and our relationship with each other. We were created out of love, and we were created to love. Moreover, as we will see later in this letter, God is love. So if we claim to know God, to be in light, but hate our brother or sister then we are either deceived, or are deceiving. Such a person is still in darkness.

2:10

Conversely, if we do love our brothers and sisters then we are indeed in the light. Now there are many things that might cause a person to hate someone else. That person may have done something wrong against you. We may be greedy, or want to gain some other advantage over the other person.  There may be some ethnic or other reason for hating them. But if we come into the light, all these reasons vanish, they are consumed by the light. Through the cross we receive forgiveness, so if we are in the light we will forgive others. If we are in the light we seek the wellbeing of others above ourselves. Indeed, we have full confidence in God to provide for us, so we do not act selfishly. If we are in the light we know that all men are equal, we know that we were all created by God, and that Christ died for us all, so there can be no reasons whatsoever for ethnic hatred. If we are in the light we will love one another.

2:11

If we hate our fellow Christians then it is a sure sign that we are in the darkness. The fruit if being in the light of Christ is that we will love fellow believers. Indeed, if we are in the light of Christ it is the only rational thing to do, nothing else makes any sense. Darkness blinds. If we are full of hate then we will not be thinking rationally, and certainly not in a godly manner.

Resurrection Contradictions? - Part 2:The Solution

Yesterday we looked at the supposed problem of contradictions in the resurrection accounts. Today we will look at the answers.

The arguments I give are not my own, but have been gleaned from various sources, including the link cited above, James White’s podcast, and other sources.

The basis for the the arguments countering the objections are mostly based on the following three facts:

• The Jews counted a day as starting at sundown. So in our terms, the day started on the previous evening.
• The Romans and Jews had different time systems.
• To the Jews, part of a day counted as a whole day.
• The Passover was not a single day, but a week long festival.

Using these facts we can show that the gospel accounts are consistent, not contradictory.

Let’s look at the three days and three nights issue first, and the answer is related to the Jewish way of counting days, ie starting in the evening. So the three days and nights are

Day 1: Day of the crucifixion (Friday). This starts on Thursday evening (night), and ends on Friday evening.

Day 2: Sabbath (Saturday): Night and day

Day 3: Resurrection (Sunday) : Sunday starts on Saturday evening, hen Sunday

So in terms of the thinking of the time there is no problem.

The supposed contradictions between John and the synoptics are mostly down to the fact that John wrote his gospel late, and was based in Ephesus. So John wrote for a Gentile (Greek) audience, so he translated time events (among other things) from the Jewish reckoning into the Roman reckoning.

The John 18:28 “problem” is really no problem at all. The Passover includes the feast of unleavened bread (see Luke 22:1), so the problem is purely imaginary. The Passover lasted a week.

With regard to the “day of preparation” is a single word in Greek and normally referred to Friday, so the term refers to “the Friday of the Passover”.

With the sixth hour, third hour issue, it is again the Roman-Jewish time system issue. The Roman sixth hour is 6am, and the Jewish 3rd hour is 9am. So, again, there is no real problem.

1 John 2:7,8 - The darkness is passing away, the light is shining

2:7

John now gives a second set of tests. It is worth noting that John is interested in testing the reality of faith. Just because someone says they believe in Jesus does not mean that they actually believe. Faith is not just a feeling, though it may involve feelings. It is something that is real, and something that will have real consequences. The first set of tests involved whether or not someone obeyed God’s commands, the second set involve our attitude towards each other. It is important that God comes first. This parallels the pattern of the ten commandments, where the first half are concerned with our relationship with God, and the second half with our relationship with each other.

The “test” was not something new, not something introduced out of thin air, it was part of God’s teaching from the beginning (see earlier comment on the ten commandments), and is part of the gospel. In that sense nothing has changed. Love God and love others is the consistent message of the Bible, and you cannot have one without the other.

2:8

Yet, in another sense the commandment is new. Jesus said in John 13:34 that He was giving them a new commandment, to love one another as He has loved us. In one sense nothing has changed, the commands remain the same, but in another everything has changed. Without Christ we were lost in sin, trapped by sin. But now, we have been set free, we start to live a new life. We start to become ever more Christlike. The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. We are waiting for the return of Christ, for something to happen, but something has also already happened. Something very significant has happened.

Resurrection Contradictions? - Part 1:The Problem

As we approach Easter there may well be usual articles on the web and in the news media questioning the veracity of the resurrection. There are the usual arguments like “Jesus didn’t die”, “the disciples stole the body” etc. These are dealt with in many books and web pages. In this post I want to look at a more detailed criticism of the resurrection, which says that John’s account is at odds with that found in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). I will do this in two parts. This first post will outline the supposed problem. You'll get the answer tomorrow!

You can find a fuller description and some answers here, among other places. Bart Ehrman, among others, makes this kind of argument.

Essentially it goes something like this, and for the most part I’ll contrast Mark’s gospel with John:

Mark 14:12 says Jesus and the disciples ate the Festival of Unleavened Bread on the first day of the Festival. However, John 18:28 says “the Jewish leaders took Jesus for Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.” So the argument goes why would the Jewish leaders be worried about ceremonial uncleanness if the Passover had already been eaten?

John 19:14 says “It was the day of Preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour”. But if Jesus had already eaten the Passover, how could it be the day or preparation?

Mark 15:25 says “It was the third hour when they crucified him”. Yet John 19:14 says it was the sixth hour. They cannot both be right, or so the argument goes.

Another related objection is that Jesus talks about being in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights (Matt 12:40). Yet He was crucified on Friday and risen on Sunday, how can three days and nights fit into this?

So where does this leave us? Are the gospel accounts contradictory and we give up saying it was all a fabrication? Or do we accept that there are some discrepancies in detail, but the essentials of the events are true? Or can we reconcile them and explain the apparent differences? Obviously sceptics tend to take the first option. A number of apologists take the second, but I am going to give reasons for taking the third option. Answers tomorrow.

1 John 2:5,6 - Walk in the same way Jesus walked

2:5

The evidence that the love of God is truly in us is that we keep His word. The corollary of this is that those today who talk so much about the love of God, but ignore or deny His word, are either liars or are utterly deceived. Keeping God’s word is the only reliable sign that you or I are in Christ and He in us. Now this does not mean that we can get in Christ by obeying His word, that would be salvation by works. But if we are in Christ we will seek to obey His word, and we will put effort into doing so.

2:6

The test is repeated. If we claim to abide in Christ, then we ought to walk as He walked. This means living life in the same way that He lived it. This is one of the reasons why the gospels are so important. They are not just a record of the death and resurrection, though of course that is a mightily important point! They record how Jesus lived, and we should seek to live in the same way. Notice that John speaks about abiding in Christ. He does not speak about following an ideology or a philosophy, or even a moral code. The gospel is about knowing God, dwelling with Him, and He with us. Out of that our thinking will be transformed, and we will seek to live different lives, but it all flows from a relationship with Him.

1 John 2:3,4 - The truth is not in him

2:3

“And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments”. The “him” here is Christ, and this verse sums up a key element of the gospel, and one that is so often ignored. The purpose of the gospel is God-centered. It is about us repenting of our sins, of us being forgiven for our sins, and us becoming ever more Christlike. The goal of the gospel is not that we don’t go to hell (though, of course, we won’t), but that we become like Christ. We become the people that God always envisaged us being (Rom 8:29). So if we truly know Christ we will start to become like Him.

In this, and other verses in 1 John, we do need to note that John is not saying we will be perfect. He is not saying the only proof of knowing Christ is perfect obedience. Rather it is that the direction of lives will be going in Christ’s direction, not man’s direction, not our own direction.

2:4

The converse of verse 3 is stated here. If someone claims to know Christ but does not keep His commandments, then that person is a liar. One might add that there are many liars about! Note also that John uses the word commandment, both here and in the preceding verse. This is not some vague notion of having a Christlike spirit, but is a matter of keeping His commands. If someone claims to know God, but then deliberately and persistently does things that God has said are wrong, then that person is talking absolute nonsense.

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 4

This is the final post on this short series on Psalm 22. The other three can be found here:

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 1

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 2

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 3

Now look at v24 . “For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard when He cried to Him”. The cry of dereliction in v1 is how it felt in v1, but it was not the end of the story. We may go through times when it seems that God has hidden His face from us, is unaware of what we are going through, when He seems far off. But He is never far off, and He has never forgotten us.

The end result is salvation, and salvation for all who seek the Lord. We then see in v27 an expansion of the scope of salvation. It is not just for Israel, but for the whole world. The nations will turn to the Lord and receive from Him. Rich and poor alike will bow down before the Lord. The salvation of God, the righteousness of God, will be declared to many future generations. And we know that all this has happened.

This Psalm is not really a psalm of suffering, it is certainly not a Psalm of lamentation. It is a Psalm of God’s victory achieved through suffering. It has also been noted that in this psalm there is no confession of psalm, and no imprecations (calling down judgement on His enemies).

This is a psalm of salvation!

So what do we see in this psalm? We see the very real suffering experienced, and all the associated feelings that go with it. We see an amazing outcome to all this. We also see something of how to deal with the experiences and feelings of going through the suffering. The great and final victory does not mean that there isn't suffering along the way. Equally, the times of suffering do not mean that the final outcome is in doubt. Indeed, we know that it was through the suffering of the cross that the victory was won.

1 John 2:1,2 - Turning aside God's wrath

2:1

John has been talking about the problem of sin. There are two main dangers in our approach to sin. One is that we regard sin as being not really important. The other is that we cannot live with the fact that we do sin. John is addressing this problem here. His goal is that people do not sin, our aim in life should be to live godly lives. We will never be sinless this side of eternity, but we should definitely aim to sin less. As John makes clear in this letter, if someone has no concern about how they live, then they do not truly know God. However, when we do sin we have an advocate with the Father, the righteous one, Jesus Christ. Without an advocate we would have to live in unreality, we would have to pretend that we do not sin, we would need to live lie. Alternatively, we would have to say that sin does not matter. But the gospel enables us to live in reality, to face up to who and what we are, and to do so with hope. We can face up to the reality that we are sinners because (i) Jesus has paid for our sins; (ii) the Holy Spirit is working in us to make us ever more Christlike. Along the way we will stumble many times, but because of Christ we can get up again.

2:2

Christ is the propitiation for our sins. That means He is the one who turns aside God’s wrath. Some people have a problem with this concept, for they have an unbiblical picture of a vengeful God being reluctantly persuaded by Christ not to send us to hell. Such a picture shows total ignorance of the Bible. First we need to look at the wrath of God. As I have said on several occasions before, and will do so many more times, the wrath of God has two key aspects to it. The first is a passionate hatred of sin, and the passion component is important. God has this passionate hatred because He knows the true awfulness of sin, of what my sin does to me, and of what my sin does to other people. Those who have soft views on the cross have no conception of the true nature of sin. The second aspect of God’s wrath is that it is perfectly rational and just. Human wrath is usually associated with being out of control, a fit of rage. This is not so with God. His wrath is perfectly rational and just. On the cross Jesus and the Father were working together. The cross is an act of love, it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together in love, out of love for each other, and out of love towards us.

1 John 1:9,10 - If we confess our sins

1:9

There are two approaches to dealing with the problem of sin. The approach taken by the world is usually to deny the existence of sin. This can either be in the form of pretending that we are not sinners, or that actions that the Bible clearly calls sinful are not actually sinful. The latter approach seems to be the more common nowadays. There are also times when sects claim “sinless perfection”. it usually does not take long to show up the total invalidity of such claims.

Sin affects all of us, and is part of our very nature. The only real solution is to confess our sins. If we do that then God is “faithful and just” and forgives us our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. We should not fear facing up to our sin, for on the cross Christ has dealt with it fully.

It is interesting that it says He is “faithful and just”. The forgiving of our sins is not just an emotional response on God’s part, but also a legal response. This is in contrast to all other religions, none of which adequately deals with sin.

1:10

So if we say we have not sinned, we are not just expressing an opinion, we are saying that God is a liar. We are also saying the Christ need not have gone to the cross and suffered for us. So if we deny that we are sinners then the word of God cannot be in us, for we are denying the word of God.

1 John 1:7,8 - Walking in the light

1:7

So how should things be? If we truly know God then we too will walk in the light. Walk means to habitually do something, ie our way of life. John is not saying we will never sin, but sin will not be a way of life, sin will not be something we glory in, or seek to justify. There are echoes of John 3:19,20 in what John writes here. Those verses in John’s gospel are spoken of far less often than John 3:16, but they are vital to understanding the human condition. Men preferred the darkness.

When we do come into the light we have fellowship with one another. Man’s sinful condition leads to him becoming ever more isolated. When we come to Christ we find that we have fellowship with all sorts of people, we find we have something in common with people from all sorts of backgrounds.

But how can a sinful people know the light and live in the light? It is because we are cleansed by the blood of Christ.

1:8

The gnostics were light on sin. Indeed, you will find that most false teachings are light on sin. “Liberal Christianity” is very light on sin. They may well be big on someone else’s sin, but they will be light on their own sin. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. Any “gospel” that does not address the problem of my sin and your sin is no gospel at all, and does not come from God.

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 3

The “congregation of the wicked” (v16) had indeed surrounded Jesus. The latter part of v16 looks like a direct reference to the cross. However, most Hebrew manuscripts have “like a lion”, it is the Septuagint (LXX) that has “they pierced”. It is obvious why we prefer the LXX version, but interestingly, the gospel writers do not refer to this verse. However, we do know that the guards cast lots for Christ’s clothes (Matt 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24).

Then we again go to the self-encouragement. In v 19 He calls on the Lord to help Him, saying in v21 “you have answered me”. The Lord is His strength, and His life is precious. When we call on the Lord, even out of desperation, we are calling on the One who has rescued us many times before.

This is followed by a declaration of what He will do after He has been rescued. The pain of the cross was absolutely real, but Jesus also knew that it was not the end. In Heb 12:2 it tells us that Jesus endured the scorn of the cross for the joy set before Him. Jesus knew that He would be raised, and after that He would declare the glory of God in the midst of the assembly, to His brothers (ie us believers). So when in trouble, we do not ignore the trouble, but we should also look beyond it, looking ahead to the time when God brings us into a "spacious place" (Ps 18:19)

In the midst of His suffering He calls on us to praise the Lord, to glorify Him and to fear Him. Nothing that was happening changed Jesus’ mind about who God was.

1 John 1:5,6 - God is light

1:5

The message from Christ Himself is that God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Light and darkness are used as metaphors on almost every culture and religion. The gnostics delighted in hidden knowledge, and this led to dark lifestyles, as will become apparent in succeeding sections of the letter. God is light, and light reveals things, it enables things to be seen.

1:6

John then gives three counters to the gnostic teaching (1:6,8,10). The gnostics claimed to have divine knowledge, to know God. But if God is light, then if we do indeed know God we will walk in the light. If we claim to know Him yet still walk in darkness, then our claim is shown to be utterly bogus and without foundation. We are to live out the truth. The gnostic teaching could either lead to asceticism, or to immoral behaviour. The latter is clearly in view in most of this letter. The gnostics argued that the body could have nothing to do with the divine. It is a vital feature of Christianity that the body is seen as good. God gave us bodies, His Son came as fully human with a fully human body. When raised He had a resurrection body, a real body. The gnostics then argued that since the body could have nothing to do with the divine they could do what they liked, it would not affect the real them. This of course is nonsense, and is just an excuse to sin. Gnosticism is not much in evidence today, at least in name, but we still see this repeated use of so-called spiritual arguments to justify sin. Currently, all those who argue in favour of full acceptance of LGBT lifestyles are merely seeking to justify sin. They are not LGBT affirming, rather they are sin affirming.

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 2

In v6-8 we are back to the anguish that Jesus is enduring. In Matthew 27:39-44 we read of those who passed by deriding Him and shaking their heads. They mocked Jesus, saying that if He was indeed the Son of God then He should come down from the cross. Of course, it was because He is the Son of God that He had to go to the cross, and stay there until His work was done. The chief priests, scribes and elders joined in the mockery. Matt 27:43 is almost exactly the same as Psalm 22:8.

So we see the Messiah being subjected to the attacks of the world, and the mocking unbelief. Jesus was mocked, and His faith was mocked. We should also note that in v6 He says “I am a worm and not man”. There is a feeling of utter helplessness, and of course, on the cross there was nothing He could do. We should not be surprised if we experience a similar pattern in our own lives at times (though on a much reduced scale). We may feel that God has forsaken us, and we may feel utterly helpless. We may also experience the world mocking us and our faith.

We can see cycles in this Psalm. In v1,2 there is the cry of dereliction, followed in v3-5 by the reminder of who God is. Then we see a similar cycle. In v6-8 there is the mockery of Jesus. This is then followed in v9-11 with a reminder of how God had looked after Him from birth. Jesus had been conceived supernaturally, by the Holy Spirit. While Herod tried to have Him killed, God protected Jesus. Throughout His life Jesus had trusted His Father. Now there was no one to help Him.

We then get another cycle of suffering in v12-18. Bulls were seen as very dangerous animals, as, of course, were lions. Jesus was surrounded by those seeking, and succeeding, in killing Him. Jesus experienced the pain. He would literally be thirsty. And because of the nature of crucifixion, his bones may well have been out of joint. He was in extreme physical agony.

1 John 1:3,4 -That our joy may be complete

1:3

John emphasises again that what the apostles were proclaiming is what they have seen and unheard. It is not something they had thought up after years of study, or of meditation, nor of visions seen in an hallucinogenic state. They had seen Jesus Christ, they had listened to Him. Moreover, they did this so that others could have fellowship with them. There is a key principle of openness in the gospel, and it cuts two ways. In John’s day the gnostics were exclusive, claiming secret knowledge. Today, we still need to guard against exclusivity or closedness. The gospel is given for sharing. However, today the danger is often a wrong sort of openness. We can put the emphasis on fellowship, forgetting that it is fellowship with the Father and the Son. This involves the need to repent, the need to believe, and the need to make Christ Lord of our lives.

1:4

Our joy becomes complete when we share the gospel. Our lives are enriched by others entering into the same fellowship. Even if the people who join are radically different from ourselves, indeed we might say especially if they are radically different from ourselves. The gospel calls out to all men and women, it calls all to repent and believe, all to receive grace and mercy, all to become disciples of Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:1,2 - That which was from the beginning

1:1

The opening of 1 John is most unusual in that there is no indication given of who it is from, nor who it is written to. Apparently, the Greek is rather a mess, but I am not a Greek scholar so I cannot comment on that. Instead of the usual greetings, John proclaims the purpose of the letter, which is the proclamation of the gospel, the good news.

There are some similarities with the opening of John’s gospel in the reference to “that which was from the beginning”. Then John goes on to stress that he, or rather we, have been eyewitnesses to Jesus. “Concerning the word of life”. There is debate here about whether the word, logos, here is referring to the Son, or to the gospel. In one sense it does not matter that much, for the good news is the good news of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1).

If we bear in mind that part of the purpose of the letter is to counter gnosticism, then the  fact that John says they have touched the Son is significant. Jesus came as fully human, and the body is not inherently corrupt, it is only corrupt because of our sin.

1:2

“The life was made manifest”. Jesus lived among them, He demonstrated the reality of eternal life. The gnostics talked about hidden life, John preached about clearly visible life. The Father sent the Son. John is emphasising the physical reality of the gospel and of Jesus. Eternal life is far more than just life going on forever, it is about the very nature of life. When man sinned , man died. Now Adam did not physically die for some 900 years later, but he was spiritually dead long before then. The eternal life talked about in the gospel comes direct from God, it is not man-made.

Be True to Jesus and the Gospel - Preach Repentance

Repentance is not a popular word these days, indeed preaching repentance may even result in you being labelled as having a phobia of some sort, or even to being arrested. Moreover, the general attitude in the church is one of being nice to people, not being “judgmental”. We need to be “accepting” of people just as Jesus was accepting of people.

However, if we look at the gospels and at Acts we get a very different picture. In Matt 4:17 we read that:

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”.

And in Mark 1:15

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

And when Jesus sent out the twelve, this is what they were sent to preach (Mark 6:12)

They went out and preached that people should repent.

In the oft-quoted incident of the woman caught in adultery, at the end Jesus says (John 8:11)

Go now and leave your life of sin.

Once we get into Acts with the church proclaiming the risen Christ we find exactly the same pattern. In his Pentecost sermon in response to the question of what they should do, Peter said:

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And Peter carries on in the same vein in Acts 3:19

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

When explaining the work of God in Acts 5:31 Peter and the other apostles said

God exalted him (Jesus) to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.

Paul’s message to the Athenians on Mars Hill was

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

And in Acts 20:21 Paul summed up his ministry thus:

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

So two things are clear. Jesus and the apostles were utterly convinced that preaching repentance was a fundamental part of their task. Moreover, repentance is good news, leading to “times of refreshing” and receiving the Holy Spirit.

Repentance is good news! For a life lived in rebellion to God, or in ignorance of His ways is a life that is destructive, both to the individual and to others. It is a key part of the task of the church to preach repentance, for if people do repent and turn to Christ they will be greatly blessed. If we never preach repentance then are not true to Christ and not true to His gospel.