Passage of the Day: April 2013

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 25, 2013

John 1:29-34

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ³¹I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” ³²John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. ³³I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

The phrase “for He existed before me” is telling because we know that John the Baptist was born before Jesus was.

The phrase “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.” Shows that Jesus was one, through whom, God was going to work and therefore had godly authority.

John the Baptist also differentiated between his baptism in water and Jesus’ baptism in the Holy Spirit. As we have seen, John’s baptism in water is the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Did John have the authority to remit sins? Did baptism itself remit sins? Or was God using the prophet (and more than a prophet) John the Baptist to bestow a washing away of sins through the act of baptism? Through the water baptism, the people were cleansed from the dirt and grime of life on the outside by the water and the stain of sin on the inside by the grace of God.

This washing inside and out prepared the way into people’s hearts for Christ’s ministry of penetrating the peoples hearts with the Truth of God’s Word; the Gospel of God’s Love shown through God sacrifice of His Son on the cross, the crushing of Satan’s head, and victory over the grave; and the Faith, Hope, Wisdom, and Power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why the Church practices one baptism. These two ministries are now united in the one baptism we receive.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)

Monday, April 22, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 22, 2013

John 1:19-28

¹⁹This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²²Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” ²³He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
²⁴Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. ²⁷It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Matthew 17 records that Jesus basically said that John the Baptist was Elijah who was to come. Why the conflict?

Luke 1:17 clears it up. John the Baptist will go as a forerunner in the power and spirit of Elijah. John the Baptist was not the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5, but he is the fulfillment of Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 19, 2013

John 1:14-18

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” ¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

How God’s Word became flesh is still quite the mystery.

I find it interesting that John says that they saw His glory full of grace and truth and later says the law was given through Moses and grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Jesus is through whom we receive God’s grace and truth. God chose to go through Moses to give us the Law and through Jesus to give us grace and truth.

We know the technical definition of grace being unmerited favor, but what does that really mean? As Pontius Pilate famously asked “What is truth?”

Truth is far more than merely what isn’t false. Truth is reality with meaning properly perceived.

Grace is the divine transformation of reality, regeneration of meaning, and corrected perception necessary to be in union with God through Christ.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 16, 2013

John 1:6-13

⁶There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
⁹There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹²But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The right to become children of God. This was the entire purpose of Christ’s mission on Earth. He saved all of mankind from the penalty of sin and provided them with the right to become children of God. Having a right and exercising a right are two totally different things.

This passage shows how Jesus broke down the national and genetic barriers to God. No longer did the nation of Israel have exclusive access to God. Genetics would no longer determine who is a child of God and who is not. Rather, faith will determine this. Those who faithfully remain in the Vine will be fruitful and those who are not in the Vine or are pruned out of the Vine will be useless and thrown into the fire. The faithful at the earliest ages to the faithful starting at the eleventh hour will have the right to be and remain children of God.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 15, 2013

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

⁴In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. ⁵The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Today marks the beginning of a walk through the Book of John. For those of you have been with me during my erratic journeys, I thank you. It is now high-time we bring back some structure to Passage of the Day.

Understanding John chapter one is a challenge and yet essential to understanding the Bible. God is eternal and His Message, His Word was there at the beginning of time. God’s Message was with God in perfect unity because God’s Message was God’s and therefore God Himself. God spoke, and by His very Word, the heavens and the Earth and all that was within them was created. God gave us His Law, His Prophecy, and His Covenants all culminating in His Son, Jesus Christ. We are to be ruled by this very Word of God sewn into our hearts.

The pain and heartache of Man can always be traced back to Man’s desire to elevate a man above the Word of God. Adam and Eve placed themselves above God’s Word to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Israelites placed earthly kings above God’s Word given through the Judges. The Israelites placed the empty promises of other nations above God’s Word given through the Prophets. How often is our life directed by our own desires, the utopia of our version of government, or the promises of others as compared to the Word of God?

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Passage of the Day - April 9, 2013

II Corinthians 5:7

for we walk by faith, not by sight

It has been a little over a month since my last Passage of the Day. I apologize for the delay, but I was getting way way way ahead of myself, and I apologize for that as well. As we know from Scripture, we are to walk by faith, one step at a time. I veered off course and acted like the little kid saying “Daddy! Daddy! Look over there! I want to go over there!” God eventually said “NO!” What did happen over the course of the past month is that I found out I’m definitely not moving where I thought I was. I also made the final decision to change churches and start attending Light of Christ Anglican Church in Kenosha, WI. God wanted me to make the biblical step of faith He was calling our family to, not the unbiblical leap of faith He wasn’t. This has been a lesson learned about my propensity to make mountains out of molehills and suffer paralysis by analysis. I want to live my life the way God wants and that is walking with Him one step at a time.