I know a lot of us have looked at Scripture and doubted it. In some cases this may be the most logical choice – I mean who can believe at first glance some of the things that are written? We have crazy visions and thoughts from some people who today would seem really crazy (John the Baptist and Ezekiel). So obviously this sets us back a bit and makes it hard to totally understand what is happening and ultimately, it makes portions of Scripture unbelievable. I could go into the whole “this wisdom is foolishness to everyone else” deal, but I won’t, not this morning.
I want you to see how huge this passage is for our theology of Jesus (Christology) and for our overall understanding of the Bible itself. While some of it seems unbelievable (it isn’t, but you understand), this passage and much of the book of 1 John is hardly unbelievable. In fact, there is little to nothing that will be hard to follow and understand in this book. Why? These first four verses are a big reason why – they were here for it. They saw these events, they touched Jesus, they heard Him talk and listened. They were there. While some characters might be hard to follow or understand, John is not. In fact, John is one of the more “historical” figures in the Bible. We have things that prove his existence; we have people who were disciple by him directly writing things within 25 years of his death about him. Some have proven that Jesus is a more historical figure than Julius Caesar (I can get into that somewhere else), then John is just as historical or more so. Further, John’s historicity further proves Jesus and ultimately, the New Testament. John is saying here that they were there and have seen it, heard it, touched it, experienced it and therefore it can be seen as reliable. This book has survived the test of time (over 1900 years) so clearly this message resonated and helped others understand Jesus.
Therefore, we can trust it and should. Praise God for His word – now let’s see what else it says in the days ahead…
No comments:
Post a Comment