John 1: 40- 42

Two disciples of John the Baptist followed Jesus that day... One of them, Andrew, went and found his brother Simon Peter and told him they had found the Messiah, the Christ. Andrew then brought Simon Peter to Jesus.

• He first found his brother-- I remember when I first got saved, even though I didn't fully understand what had happened to me and what it all meant, I couldn't wait to tell my family and friends what had happened to me. I knew something had happened- something inside me changed! I knew I had been forgiven of my sin- I felt clean, pure, free- and I wanted my family to experience this also. I wanted them to come to Jesus because Jesus had done this for me. My family did not come as Simon Peter came. They thought I was crazy. Eventually two members of my family came to meet Jesus. One of them followed for awhile and then stopped following, stopped believing, stopped obeying His Word. The other is still following, still believing, still seeking to obey His Word. My friends forsook me but God gave me new friends, a new family and how I praise Him.
• Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter. He gave him a new name, a name which represented his new nature.

Our part is to bring people to Jesus. We are God's witnesses. When He does His work in us the natural overflow is to tell others about Him. We are to point the way to Jesus. We tell them He is the only Savior who can forgive their sin rescuing them from the power and bondage of sin, which tells them they are in need of His saving power. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin- makes them aware of their sinfulness, of their judgement because of the sin. The Holy Spirit convinces them of Christ's righteousness as the only One who can forgive them, showing them He is the only Savior. When this happens they are genuinely born again. If the Holy Spirit does not do this work in them it does not matter if they pray a prayer, go to an altar, or get baptized. They may be able to clean themselves up for a while in the excitement of the moment but in the long run they cannot continue the facade. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit living Christ's life in us that we can continue to follow Him. I wish people understood this vital truth- it would help them not try to do so much in the flesh.
Jesus changed me, He gave me a new name, a new position, a new purpose, a new life.....
from sinner to saint
        lost    to found
       dead   to  living
       fickle   to faithful
       slave   to  free
       dark    to  light
get the picture?
all to the praise of the glory of His marvelous grace...

John 1: 35- 39

I know it appears I skipped several verses here but actually I used those verses earlier. See the Archives.

Again John the Baptist points out Jesus as the Lamb of God and two of his own disciples (students under his teaching) heard him and then followed Jesus as He was walking by. Jesus turned to them and asked, "What are you seeking?" When it appears to us that someone is turning to follow Jesus we too should ask the question. "What are you seeking?" What are you looking for?

These disciples wanted to know where Jesus was staying. Already they wanted to be with Him, spend time with Him, get to know Him. Hopefully this will be the response we get when we ask this question to those who appear to be seeking Jesus. Then we can respond as Jesus did, "Come and See." When Jesus invites to come and see there is a positive response as there was with these disciples. They came and saw and stayed with Him that day.

In fact they stayed with Him for all eternity. More about these two disciples next.

What about you- what are you seeking? I invite you to come and see Jesus. May He open the eyes of your heart so that you may know Him for all eternity.

to the praise of His glorious grace!

John 1: 19- 28

The testimony of John the Baptist, when questioned by priests and Levites about who he was and what he was doing, was a confession of who he was not. He said he was not the Christ- not the Coming Anointed One- not the Messiah. He confessed that he was a voice crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord", as the prophet Isaiah had said. He was preparing them for the Coming One! He was trying to get their attention focused on preparing for Messiah's coming. By quoting Is. 40: 3, in John 1: 23, John is applying to Christ what is said of YAHWEH. John was preparing them for God in flesh which is why in verse 27 he says, "He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie..." John considered himself lower than a servant in comparison to Who was coming, the One the people were to prepare themselves for.

O my Lord Jesus, help me to have this same spirit. The spirit of a slave. A slave was the one who tied and untied the sandals, who washed the dirty feet, the lowest of low. May I consider myself lower than a slave and serve You in true, pure, genuine humility. I get so puffed up- please cleanse it, burn it out of me with Your holy fire. I do hate it. I do pray that You will take the intense desire of my heart for purity of Your Holy Word and make/ cause the words of my mouth and the thoughts and intentions of my heart to be pleasing to You My Rock, Refuge and Redeemer. May the words that I sing, speak, and pray be wholly devoted to You, may You be glorified in using this vessel to do Your holy will. Control me, Lord Jesus. Please use me to get peoples attention focused on preparing to meet You- in salvation, in daily sanctification and/or in Your soon coming return.

John 1: 18

"No one has ever seen God..."

This takes me back to Moses who asked of God, "Please, show me Your glory." Yet Moses only got to see the backside as God passed by him in the cleft of the rock. God showed Moses His goodness and equaled it with His glory as seen in Ex. 33: 12- 23. We are shown God's goodness and in it we see His glory.

"...the only God who is at the Father's side..." This is Jesus our Lord.

"...He has made Him known." Jesus has made the Father known to us.

This is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp. God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. But man cannot save himself, it is impossible for anyone to be saved apart from the Lord Jesus Christ who must make the Father known to the one being saved. If Jesus does not make it known it cannot happen. Matthew 11: 27, says, "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

The Father and the Son are in perfect unity in man's salvation. Throughout the gospel of John it says that the Son can do nothing of His own accord but only what He sees the Father doing. John 5: 19. The Father has given all authority and all judgment to the Son (also in John 5). The Father granted the Son to give life to whom He will..v: 21. Jesus made the Father known by being obedient to the Father in everything. Jesus came to do the work of Him who sent Him and that work was to actually save those the Father had given Him before the world began. John 6:  29, 37-40.
 All the goodness of God is seen in Jesus Christ as He reveals to men and women the salvation from God, the full atonement paid on our behalf, the love of the Father, the kindness of God.....and on and on.....!

Jesus has made the Father known to us and I praise the glory of His grace to me and to you.

John 1: 17

"For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

The Law- the commandments, were given to Moses directly from God. The commandments were and are unattainable by man. They were given to show God's perfect standard- holiness. His perfect standard in man's relationship with Him and with one another. It is impossible for anyone to measure up to that standard because of sin. Self-centered, self-determined, self-dependant sin. The measure is not one another, it is God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous- no not one. So, all are condemned under the law that was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus. God had a plan prepared before He created any of us, before sin came. His plan was Jesus Christ, His One and Only Son would bring grace and truth. God chose to set His love, His unmerited, undeserved affection on those who would believe, on those He gave the right to become children of God. We cannot separate God's love from His grace, nor can we separate truth from His grace. Jesus Christ is the truth- "I am the way, the truth, the life and no one comes to the Father but by Me". Jesus also said, "No one comes to Me unless the Father draws him." and He also said, "No one can know the Father unless the Son reveals Him to them." God's grace and truth came to man in the Person of Jesus Christ. The truth is that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all in harmony in this.

In Moses' law we are told clearly we don't measure up, we are guilty, and we are condemned and justly so.
In Jesus' grace and truth we are told clearly that God's love and favor are granted us on the truth of Who Jesus is and what He has done. We are given hope and life in Jesus Christ.

Lord, in You alone I rest. On You alone I cling. You are the souce and substance of all I need. Thank You for Your grace and truth. Make Yourself known ever more clearly, open eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to believe and minds to truly understand...

to the praise of the glory of Your marvelous grace.

John 1: 16

"And from His fulness we have all received, grace upon grace."

Here I noticed that from verse 14 John began using the pronoun 'we'. Who is the 'we' he refers to? Could it be those who believed and received, the children of God, those born of God? This is who I think he refers to even though I realize that the whole world benefits from Christ's coming with grace upon grace. I believe John is speaking of those who would receive Christ through the new birth. So what have we received? Grace upon grace! From what have we received it? From His fulness! Think about that- His fulness- incomprehensible in magnitude. From His fulness we received grace stacked upon grace. Grace, His unmerited love and favor toward us, on us.

What are some of these? Not in any particular order:

• the application/ imputation of Christ's righteousness to us
• the gift of eternal life
• pardon, cleansing from sin's guilt
• redemption- bought back from the slave market of sin to be set free to love God and live for Him
• favor of God upon us
• mercy
• blessed with every spiritual blessing the the heavenly places in Christ
• chosen from before the foundation of the world
• given every thing we need for life and godliness
• adopted into the family of God
• a rich inheritance
• the Holy Spirit who is the source of all these benefits to live in us
• the Holy Spirit living the life of Christ through us
• the Word of God- we can read every day, God speaks to us through His Word- grace upon grace

From His fulness- a never ending supply of His goodness, grace, and truth. Jesus is full of grace and truth.
My mind cannot grasp a picture of this. When I am full (of food) I am beyond the limit of satisfaction to the over indulged. It is painful, causes a physical stomach ache. When my heart is full it wants to explode- there is pain of sorts. In sadness a groan must escape. In joy a shout or a song or a 'Yes' must escape. Sometimes, both the pain of sorrow and the joy of something overflows with tears. Fulness bubbles over, flows over the top like a full glass of water will flow over the rim.

All this goodness, blessing, grace flows out of God's fulness. He is so full of Who His Is, holy, holy, holy!! In His holiness His character bursts over the top and flows to us continually. His fulness never ends.

Each of us who is born again, born of God receives His grace out of His fulness.

for the praise of His glory!

John 1:15

John the Baptist bore witness about Jesus. He told the people who came into the wilderness to see him and hear him preach that Jesus was the One he was talking about. Jesus was the One who in reality was 'before' John even though it appears that John came first. This was so, he explained, because Jesus existed before him. Jesus is eternal- He has always existed. He is self-existing. He was with the Father before the foundations of the world were laid.

This is why John can say Jesus ranks before him. In order of creation and existence- the one created comes after the Self-existing Creator. John understood who he was and he understood who Jesus was.
John the Baptist was a true prophet. He proclaimed Jesus as God.

to the praise of His glory!