JOHN – Chapter 1
What/who was important to Jesus?
God the Father, whom Jesus bears witness to and the scriptures and churches are suppose to
What needs did Jesus meet?
Intimacy with God, promises of the future, hope for those that have faith and wisdom through the growth of faith
What did Jesus ask or require of his followers?
To follow Jesus/God Himself over human centered things such as the bible, bible versions and translations, churches, pastors, Sunday school teachers, bible teachers’ fallible opinions, governments, pop culture, fundamentalist/liberal trends, etc. and to strive to bear witness to God and discern God in the world’s fallible humanness: as Christianity is about following Christ not subscribing to a set of doctrines about Jesus, which are all manmade whether orthodox or heterodox---doctrines come later as a byproduct of following Jesus and faith
What issues did Jesus address (relationships, work, money, character, religious practice, etc.)?
The foundation of our faith: Jesus Himself as per John 1:1 in the original Greek says: “en arche en ho logos kai ho logos en pros ton theon kai theos en ho logos” or in short Jesus is the Word Of God, who is God Himself and not the manmade 66 book Protestant bible canon which was invented in 325/367 AD and ratified in 1611/1790 AD (especially Paul’s epistles)---the scriptures, however, are the realized word of God, in the sense that they bear witness to Jesus, who is Himself the Word Of God as neo-orthodoxy rightfully attests---to call anything other than Jesus the Word Of God is nothing short of idolatry and blasphemy---for if scripture were written on a Golden Calf---it would be just as absurd to call it the Holy Golden Calf, Word Of God---plus the 66 books known collectively as the Protestant bible are not Jesus (I’d recommend Karl Barth, William Barclay and H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr for more information on the subject)
What is compelling to you about Jesus in this section?
His closeness to God the Father, which the author of John describes in Trinitarian/Incarnational terms without the use of the language of the institutionalized virgin birth doctrine of Christendom as the Synoptic Gospels do---also, Jesus is considered the incarnation of Haghia Sophia or divine holy wisdom
How do followers respond to Jesus?
With faith from the heart, mind and soul
What in this section challenges us to respond/ imitate/obey?
That Jesus is the Word Of God and to follow the Word Of God, we must follow Jesus’ example that we discern is authentic from our bible versions, but not to blindly observe, obey the letter or follow fallible translations or clerical opinions on what the Bible says as the Pharisees did
How did Jesus change the world (for an individual or for a community)? Jesus offered up His (God’s) whole self to the world
What vision of being missional do you glimpse for yourself? For the church? Jesus must be at the center of all we say and do not the bible (although scripture is still important) or what Paul or a particular bible translation says (as a bible translation of the errant copies of errant copies of errant copies ad infinitum [though errant only in unimportant stuff] of manuscripts copied from the lost and never seen autographed original texts are the culturally bias thoughts of the translators interspersed with the essence of said originals, but are not the actual Holy Spirit inspired words of God nor should be treated as such) or how great our church programs are or how great and big our activity center is nor what Pastor so and so says and does---in other words, Jesus must be our one and only role model, so that we bear witness to God’s presence and activity in the world---also, God is in the little everyday things
No comments:
Post a Comment