John 1:1-18

John begins his gospel by stating clearly who Jesus is, and the opening sections sets out many themes that will be expanded on in the rest of the book. These include:

• The deity of Jesus.
• Jesus brings light and life
  
• The failure of the darkness to overcome the light.
• Jesus was rejected by the world, and by the Jews in particular
• The idea of receiving Jesus
• Being born again
• The humanity of Jesus
  
• The grace of God
• Jesus reveals the Father
  

John famously starts his gospel with the words "In the beginning was the Word ...". This is reminiscent of the start of Genesis. The term logos (word) would have been familiar to his 1st century hearers. To those familiar with the Old Testament the Word of God was very common. God created the world by His word, and He revealed His word to the various prophets. It would also be familiar to Greek readers as well. To Stoic philosophers the logos was the divine reason giving order to creation and overcoming human ignorance. Philo wrote of logos as denoting the mind of God and being the agent of creation, also mediating between God and creation,

The Word was divine and eternal. When it says the Word was with God, this can actually be translated as saying the Word and the Father looked affectionately at each other. Later in this section (v18) John says that the Word knows the Father's heart.

Jesus is the light and He brings life. If we want to know how to live, then we need to look at Jesus. We need to allow Him to shed His light into our life. John's gospel includes many instances of Jesus bringing His light into people's lives.

John's Gospel - Introduction

This should keep me going for a while. As with Joel I'll start with some background information. These are the primary resources that I use:

• The Global Concise Bible Dictionary - L O Richards
• TNIV Study Bible - Zondervan
• John - CG Kruse, Tyndale Commentary, IVP
  

John's gospel is quite different from the other three. It is far less a historical record (though this does not mean it is not historically accurate!), and far more reflective on Jesus' ministry. It also contains many more intimate details, with a large chunk of the book focused on the last days of Jesus' ministry on earth.

The overwhelming purpose of the book is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31), therefore the book is more structured around themes than in a strict chronological order. Though of course there is a general chronological order to the book.

The book was probably written around 90AD, and by the apostle John. There are arguments for a date around 60AD, but 90AD is more widely accepted.

There are many encounters recorded in the book. Examples include, Andrew meeting Jesus, the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, several between Jesus and the religious leaders, Thomas, the final meeting with Peter. All of these meetings included a revelation of Jesus and demanded a response from the people meeting Jesus.

There are many key theological themes in the book, these include: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is a big emphasis on the current benefits of the gospel.

Joel 3:11-21

The nations may think that they are going to do the judging, that they are going to inflict defeat upon Israel, but in reality it is the Lord who will do the judging, and it is the nations that will be judged. The judgement will be bloody, and similar imagery is used in Revelation (Rev 14:19,20, 19:15). In Rev 14 it speaks of an angel swinging his sickle on the earth, while in Rev 19 it is the Lord Himself who executes judgement. Our western mindsets find this hard to take, for it does not fit easily with out picture of Jesus, but we need to recognise that our culture has given us a distorted picture of who Christ is. The New Testament is clear that there is a coming wrath of God that people need to escape from (Matt 3:7; 1 Thes 1:10), and the only way of escape is repent and believe.

Afterwards there will be a new heaven and a new earth. There will be abundance in God's kingdom, but all other kingdoms will wither away and become desolate.

Moving on to John's gospel next.

Joel 3:1-10

These verse link the last few verses with the last days. God will restore the fortunes of Jerusalem, and bring them back from captivity. He will also gather all nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat means "the Lord judges", the Lord will judge the nations. This is a common them, namely that God will gather the enemies of His people. Their enemies will think they have come to claim victory, but it will turn out that God has called them to see Him bless His people (Ps 23:5). The nations would be judged for the way they had abused the people of Israel, particularly the children. The nations that attacked Israel will suffer themselves what they inflicted on the people of Israel.

Joel 2:28-32

This is probably the most famous passage in Joel. Peter quoted it at Pentecost after the Holy Spirit fell upon the people (Acts 2:17-21). In the New Testament it sometimes talks about the promised Holy Spirit (Gal 3:14; Acts 2:33; Eph 1:13). Passages such as this, and Jeremiah 33:31-33 are probably the ones in mind.

The passage has a global significance. The Spirit will be poured out on all people. All can be taken as referring to all nations, and to all classes of people. In Joel it is probably the latter that was the most immediate application. Joel's earlier calls to repentance and seeking the Lord were directed at all stratas of society, so likewise the Lord's response would apply to all people, young and old, male and female, even on servants. Now we know that the Holy Spirit is for all believers from all nations. Indeed it was God pouring out His Spirit on Cornelius and his household that convinced Peter that God had accepted the Gentile believers on exactly the same basis as He accepted Jewish believers (Acts 10:44-48).

The pouring out of the Spirit is not the only thing referred to here, there are also signs of the end of the age. Jesus referred to similar events when talking about apocalyptic events (Matt 24:29; Mark 13:24,25; Luke 21:11).

So there are three things described here:

• The pouring out of the Spirit on many people, leading to them having dreams, visions and prophecies.
• Signs and wonders and cosmic events, heralding the coming of the Lord.
• Deliverance and salvation for all who call upon the Name of the Lord.

We have seen elements of all three, but have not yet seen all three happening together at once. When talking about the very last days we have a tendency to focus either on the doom and gloom of terrible things happening, or the bringing in of the final harvest. The truth is that all three elements spoken of by Joel will happen at once.

Joel 2:18-27

Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5, 34:14), because of the way jealousy affects us humans this has negative connotations for us, but jealousy with God is different. He has the right to be our sole object of worship. If we worship or trust in other things it rouses jealousy in the Lord in much the same way a husband or wife might feel jealousy. Here we read that the jealousy of the Lord caused Him to have pity on the land. God was determined to have a land and a people who truly knew Him and lived under His blessing.

So in response to the repentance of the people God acts and promises to send blessing upon the land. The people would have all that they need, they would not be objects of scorn. Salvation today includes the same elements. Jesus told us that our Father in Heaven knows what we need and is our provider. Moreover, when we come to Christ He starts to restore our dignity.

Then the Lord will remove the enemies from the land. The stench refers to the stench of the dead bodies of the invading hordes. God will completely remove the enemies from our lives.

We should rejoice in our salvation, for God has done great things, and these are greater than anything we can imagine (Eph 3:20), and we have yet to see the full extent of His salvation, This salvation spreads to creation around us as well. The Lord will give bountiful supply, and the we will have all that we need to serve the Lord properly. Even the wasted years will be restored, With God salvation is complete.

Joel 2:10-17

The Lord will be at the head of the army. This means that the invasion will be God's doing. Joel is trying to impress on the people the awfulness of what is about to happen.

Even so, all is not lost. As I stated in an earlier section, the purpose of the Lord is always to elicit a response from us. The Lord desires that the people return to Him and repent. Whatever the situation, no matter how angry, and justifiably so, the Lord seems to be, His desire is always that we repent and turn to Him.

Repentance involves turning to God with all our hearts. It is an inward change, not a mere outward response. However, the inward response will produce outward effects. These may include fasting, weeping and mourning.

For the Lord is merciful. He is slow to anger and delights to forgive. It is in God's nature to look for an excuse to forgive, to find a reason not to punish. He would far rather bless than punish. The flipside of this is that when God does finally judge, it means that there truly was no alternative.

Joel again calls on the people to assemble before the Lord. This includes all the people, young and old, and it is to have higher priority than anything, even getting married (Luke 14:20). The priests are to call upon the name of the Lord.