JOHN – Chapter 14
What/who was important to Jesus?
The incarnational and liberating Truth of Himself
What needs did Jesus meet?
Jesus was God incarnated to point the Way forward to Himself
What did Jesus ask or require of his followers?
To believe and to follow the New Law of Grace and Love
What issues did Jesus address (relationships, work, money, character, religious practice, etc.)?
He promised us the Paraclete/Holy Spirit, peace and that He will return
What is compelling to you about Jesus in this section?
Jesus once again shows how He is God incarnate
How do followers respond to Jesus?
We must believe and allow the Holy Spirit to liberate us so that we are free to follow the Way that Jesus has set before us
What in this section challenges us to respond/ imitate/obey?
“Servanthood is not God’s way to get us to the place where we will only be served; it is the Way and the Life of the kingdom of God. Jesus is without ambiguity when He tells us that He is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). His invitation is to join an uprising. If we choose to follow Him, there will be within us a revolution of the soul. He will do nothing less than translate us from a kingdom of emptiness into His kingdom where we will begin to live in a new reality. The Way of God is the path of servant hood. This is not a test to see if we deserve better. It is God offering us the best of Himself and the best of life. God calls us to be servants because God is a servant.” (pgs. 115-116 of Erwin Raphael McManus’ Stand Against The Wind: Awaken The Hero Within)
How did Jesus change the world (for an individual or for a community)? See above---also, when Christ Himself, who is attested, in the scriptures to have said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’---He means that He and the example of His life are that and not the Bible or churches or pastors or clerical opinions or checklist Fundamentalism(s) [aka the Fundamentals: biblical Inerrancy/literalism, the virgin birth, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the authenticity of Christ's miracles (or, alternatively, his pre-millennial second coming] are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Christian Truth is not propositional, but incarnational for Christian Truth is found in the personality, character, life and work of Christ, who modeled God’s Way of living. Christ’s Life is the Way to live the Truth; Truth is the Way Christ Lived and the Way to Live is to follow Christ’s example: the Truth.
What vision of being missional do you glimpse for yourself? For the church? We must let the incarnated Holy Spirit guide us to live the way of Christ as stated more fully in the answers to the two questions above---also, just as Christian Truth is incarnational, Christian Truth is also experiential and relational---for we experience God’s Truth through the incarnational indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we relate Christ’s Divine Presence most fully by showing random acts of loving service towards others---also, God’s Truth is not written but lived: Absolute Truth is not about the comfortable checklists of religion to decide who is in or out (for Christianity is not an exclusive club founded on manmade propositions---scriptural or not) nor a religion about God/Jesus (Christendom---organized institutionalized religious Christianity), but is Jesus Himself and the religion of the way that Jesus lived His life, which scandalously fulfilled all of the world’s religions or even lack of religion---for Jesus’ Way is a call to an abundant life
No comments:
Post a Comment