These past two weeks the Lord has had me read the gospel of John repeatedly and in doing so, He has caused my love for Him to expand and has given me a great desire to know Him better, to have an intimate knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The other gospels while they give an incredible account of Jesus Christ in the things He did and His teachings, no other gospel focuses more on who Jesus is than John. John was close to Jesus and that is obvious when you read his words. The Lord led me to write this blog one year ago prior to that I had no ability to write anything, so of all the 53 writings over this past year, He is responsible for them all. I didn’t know it at the time, but this past year has been in preparation for what He would have me do next. As I have been reading the gospel according to John something happened, I grew so found of my Lord through this gospel that I didn’t want to leave it, I wanted to know my Lord better. This past week the Lord put on my heart that I should write about His gospel, I thought at the time that it was just a passing thought but it wasn’t, I am convinced that it is what the Lord wants me to do, I have prayed about it repeatedly over the past week and each time He has revealed to me that this is what he wants me to do. This is a large undertaking, it is something that will take years to complete. The gospel of John is a book containing 21 chapters, each of those chapters are broken up into verses to give us quick referencing ability, there are 879 verses in the (NKJV) from which I will be referring unless otherwise stated, each week I will put to memory 4-5 verses, meditate on those verses, pray about those verses and write down what the Lord has shown me in those verses; at the rate of 4-5 verses a week, this will take 3-4 years to complete. This seems so huge to start with but I believe it is what the Lord wants me to do and I being His slave in whom I owe my very life, who am I to refuse, besides the closeness that I will have with my Lord as He leads me through this will be priceless without measure, it will require His holding my hand and my heart and leading me every step of the way as I follow, so join me in unfolding the gospel of our Lord as revealed by the apostle John.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1-5).
Each time I read that, every time that I have thought about it and every time I have prayed over these verses I am awe struck. How could anyone read that and not know that Jesus Christ is God? One of the tell tale signs of a cult is what they do with Jesus, every single cult denies the deity of Jesus Christ, they all lower Him in some way. They may have Christ in their name but deny Him as Lord and Savior. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”. John says in the beginning because there is not a word in Greek or in English to truly express eternity prior to creation, I can’t even do so using multiple words because I am a created being existing in time, so it is difficult for us to grasp eternity, you see eternity exist outside of time. Just like we are created beings, time itself is a creation; time did not exist until God spoke it into existence. Genesis 1:1 referring to the beginning of creation, John 1:1 reference beginning to try and convey to we who are stuck in time that Jesus Christ existed before time ever even began. He refers to Him as the Word, He is the very Word of God. The first reference to the Word comes in Genesis. “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward’” (Genesis 15:1). Jesus is God’s Word that came to man. What is a word? A word is composed of letters, “Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 1:11) are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. Jesus was the last Word of God to man and was the full embodiment of God in a man (Hebrews 1:1-3), “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High” (Hebrews 1:3). John wanted to make sure that we understood that Jesus is the supreme authority, that He was the beginning of all things and that He is the end of all things, He was the complete embodiment of God in a man, which He always has been and always will be. Jesus said: “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30).
“All things where made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made”. This is one of those things that is so incredibly difficult for people to grasp, Jesus created the very world He came into, the very world that rejected Him, the very world that spit in His face, persecuted Him, beat Him, murdered Him, and yet He loves them. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). People do not have a problem with the works of Jesus, the Pharisees did not have a problem with the works of Jesus, but it is the Words of Jesus that people have a problem with, they do not except Him as God. “The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God’” (John 10:33). Jesus was in the beginning with God, Jesus was God, and it was through Him that everything was created.
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”. Who can’t see light? The blind cannot see light. The people of this world walk around in spiritual darkness and cannot see the light; they are blind and will remain so unless their blindness is healed by the Lord. In a prime example of spiritual blindness I talked with a man earlier this week and told him that God loves him, I told him that God loves him quoting: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s love in all of scripture it is absolutely beautiful and I talk of it frequently but this is what the man said in reply: “Wow, nice guilt trip then. I would never, ever try to guilt my children into believing/doing/following something. That's not love, that's manipulation”. There is no other explanation, this man is blind. How can you take Romans 5:8 and get that out of it? It makes no since, it is as though he heard completely different words than what I had spoken. One of my favorite stories in scripture is in John 9 where Jesus healed the man born blind, he was taken to the Sanhedrin who wouldn’t believe him until they brought in his parents, then after they confirmed that he was born blind, and even then they still refused to believe that Jesus had done it calling him a sinner. The man confirmed that it was Jesus who had healed him and confessed to them that Jesus was of God because no one that was born blind had ever been healed of his blindness since time began, for this they threw him out of the Synagogue, for the Jew that was devastating. “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of God’” (John 9:35). After Jesus revealed to him that He was the Son of God the man confessed that he did believe and worshiped Him. It is only God who can make a man see, and until God opens the spiritual eyes of a man he will remain blind. 70 times in the gospel of John he tells us to believe and that through this belief we are saved. What are you to believe? Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world, your sins, and trust everything he said, throw yourself at His mercy.
Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1-5).
Each time I read that, every time that I have thought about it and every time I have prayed over these verses I am awe struck. How could anyone read that and not know that Jesus Christ is God? One of the tell tale signs of a cult is what they do with Jesus, every single cult denies the deity of Jesus Christ, they all lower Him in some way. They may have Christ in their name but deny Him as Lord and Savior. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”. John says in the beginning because there is not a word in Greek or in English to truly express eternity prior to creation, I can’t even do so using multiple words because I am a created being existing in time, so it is difficult for us to grasp eternity, you see eternity exist outside of time. Just like we are created beings, time itself is a creation; time did not exist until God spoke it into existence. Genesis 1:1 referring to the beginning of creation, John 1:1 reference beginning to try and convey to we who are stuck in time that Jesus Christ existed before time ever even began. He refers to Him as the Word, He is the very Word of God. The first reference to the Word comes in Genesis. “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward’” (Genesis 15:1). Jesus is God’s Word that came to man. What is a word? A word is composed of letters, “Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 1:11) are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. Jesus was the last Word of God to man and was the full embodiment of God in a man (Hebrews 1:1-3), “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High” (Hebrews 1:3). John wanted to make sure that we understood that Jesus is the supreme authority, that He was the beginning of all things and that He is the end of all things, He was the complete embodiment of God in a man, which He always has been and always will be. Jesus said: “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30).
“All things where made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made”. This is one of those things that is so incredibly difficult for people to grasp, Jesus created the very world He came into, the very world that rejected Him, the very world that spit in His face, persecuted Him, beat Him, murdered Him, and yet He loves them. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). People do not have a problem with the works of Jesus, the Pharisees did not have a problem with the works of Jesus, but it is the Words of Jesus that people have a problem with, they do not except Him as God. “The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God’” (John 10:33). Jesus was in the beginning with God, Jesus was God, and it was through Him that everything was created.
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”. Who can’t see light? The blind cannot see light. The people of this world walk around in spiritual darkness and cannot see the light; they are blind and will remain so unless their blindness is healed by the Lord. In a prime example of spiritual blindness I talked with a man earlier this week and told him that God loves him, I told him that God loves him quoting: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s love in all of scripture it is absolutely beautiful and I talk of it frequently but this is what the man said in reply: “Wow, nice guilt trip then. I would never, ever try to guilt my children into believing/doing/following something. That's not love, that's manipulation”. There is no other explanation, this man is blind. How can you take Romans 5:8 and get that out of it? It makes no since, it is as though he heard completely different words than what I had spoken. One of my favorite stories in scripture is in John 9 where Jesus healed the man born blind, he was taken to the Sanhedrin who wouldn’t believe him until they brought in his parents, then after they confirmed that he was born blind, and even then they still refused to believe that Jesus had done it calling him a sinner. The man confirmed that it was Jesus who had healed him and confessed to them that Jesus was of God because no one that was born blind had ever been healed of his blindness since time began, for this they threw him out of the Synagogue, for the Jew that was devastating. “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of God’” (John 9:35). After Jesus revealed to him that He was the Son of God the man confessed that he did believe and worshiped Him. It is only God who can make a man see, and until God opens the spiritual eyes of a man he will remain blind. 70 times in the gospel of John he tells us to believe and that through this belief we are saved. What are you to believe? Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world, your sins, and trust everything he said, throw yourself at His mercy.
Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
