Salvation is God’s principle purpose amongst mankind. The embodiment of God’s person and God’s purpose is our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus saves.
Let’s listen to John, very carefully, in what amounts to the last and most meaningful sermon of his life. It is an offer of grace. It is a call to faith. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to John the Baptist.
Leaders and followers, followers and leaders, which one are you? I hope you are willing to be both. But before you can be a follower or a leader, you must be a careful listener to two of the most important words Jesus ever spoke.
Time is of the essence if you really want to “know” the Lord. God makes time for those He loves. Do you make time for God? “Know” in Jesus’ prayer and in both biblical languages means so much more than merely grasping facts. It means grasping a person.
“Maundy” means mandate, or commandment. We name this day of Holy Week not after the foot washing Jesus gave His disciples, not after the last supper Jesus shared with His disciples that turned into the Lord’s Supper, but after the “new commandment” Jesus spoke to His disciples, then and now.
The Gospel of John was written so that people would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and become His disciple. There is no theological nor practical distance between becoming a believer and being a disciple. It is a synonymous experience, for a person of true belief is immediately transformed into a true disciple.
The aged Apostle John got it right when he wrote, “In the beginning was O Logos … and O Logos was God.” God is the transcendent, divine, Creator and Sovereign Regulator of all life. The imperfect indicative “was” means there was, is, and always will be God, the God who is always present and always at work.
Jesus Christ is the King of many things. Jesus is the King of creation, having spoken the universe into existence. Jesus is the King of salvation, for no one can be saved apart from Him. Jesus is the King of the consummation, and all will see Him at His second coming.
Election and evangelism are a seemingly contradictory pair of competing values. They are a peculiar paradox, an apparent antinomy. Is it God who chooses His own people to save forever, or do people make their own free and willing choice on the day they are forever saved?
A beautiful picture of the Holy Trinity emerges from the upper room discourse in John’s Gospel (ref. John 16:5-15). There the one true and living God speaks to His disciples of the mystery of the Trinity. Each person of the Godhead is identified.
