Far too often when we try and fix things we end up making things worse.
As Jacob and Rachel and the family flee from Laban they try and take matters into their own hands instead of trusting the promises of God. This leads to things getting worse and it is only the direct intervention of God that means there is a positive outcome.
We, like Jacob and Rachel, have the choice to trust God or take matters into our own hands. Far too often we choose to take matters into our own hands and this only makes things worse. But because for God’s direct intervention in sending Jesus, can we see that God is determined to keep His promises to us despite all of our attempts to do things on our own.
If John 1:1-18 is the hallway into the home that is John’s Gospel, then John 20:30-31 is the reason the house was built.
John is explicitly clear about why he wrote. And his reason revolves around four truths.
First, Jesus did a lot of ‘signs’ (public acts that show the significance of God), but John only recorded these ones.
Second, John recorded these signs for the purpose of ‘believing’ – that his readers might know and trust a key truth.
Third, this key truth is the identity of Jesus: he is God’s appointed and chosen saviour of the world, who is truly the Son of God.
Fourth, this truth believed in gives life, both now and forevermore.
With these two parts in place – the hallway into the house, and the reason the house was built this way, we can now begin to unpack John’s Gospel!
John’s Gospel is a little different to the other three Gospels. Remember that ‘gospel’ means ‘good news announcement’. And remember that the four Gospels are ‘good news biographies’ (g.n.b.) of Jesus.
As John’s g.n.b. begins, we take a walk, if you like, down a long hallway. It is kind of like entering a hobbithole (for those who love ‘Lord of the Rings’) – a long hallway, with rooms and artifacts off each side, leading to the main dwelling. In this sense, John’s ‘prologue’ (1:1-18) is a long hallway into the main account. And here, in this hallway, all the main themes and ideas are laid out as we begin to consider the key question of John’s g.n.b.: ‘Who is Jesus?’
You see, once we have answered that question, then the succeeding question is clear: ‘What does this mean – what should we do with him?’
‘Culture’ is ‘the way we do stuff around here’. It describes our life as a community of God’s mob. Last week, we spent time looking at that internally – intentional inter-generational relationships around the proclamation and practice of God’s good news in Jesus.
This week, we are going to look at our ‘culture’ as we relate outwards, externally, to the world around us. At heart, this is a discussion of our culture of ‘evangelism’ – proclaiming and practicing the good news of Jesus so that others come to meet him.
Daniel 6 gives us a snapshot in the life of one man, Daniel, doing this. It is not an explicit text on evangelism. It is not a ‘how-to’… it is ‘just’ a snapshot in the life of a man living as one of God’s people in this world. And, yet, Daniel proclaims and practices God’s good news – and this is displayed in his consistent and costly prioritising of God, his rule and reign, in all things.
The result is a remarkable proclamation of God and his good news in a hostile world!
