Old Jerry

I think that Jesus is teaching us that the nature of the Kingdom of God is that you have to repent of your sins and that you have to be invited and accept the invitation by God in order to see that kingdom. I do think that Nicodemus does understand him because when Jesus was crucified Nicodemus want to help with the burial and he also stood up for Jesus.

Faith that solely rests on miracles will not get you through because after the miracle is performed we would want another one. When you don’t get another miracle then your faith is diminished. True faith is believing in something that cannot be seen. When you develop a true faith then that faith is with you at all times no matter what happens. Yes, Jesus did see these problems but he was trying to get as many as possible to believe in him.

Anger was justified because the merchants were taking the place of the gentiles that might have wanted to worship. It was like an open market in there and it wouldn’t have been a place to worship. Anger can be sometimes be good and other times it just might get you into trouble. The way that it gets into trouble is when you break the law and try to take things into you own hands.

The temple had been set up to be a money making machine. There were selling sacrificial animals and changing the local currency into the money that the temple would accept for its taxes. Jesus was offended because these booths were set up in the temple and people couldn’t come in and worship God. Jesus took action and ran all the merchants out of the temple.

Jesus probably performed this miracle behind-the-scenes because his time hadn’t come and he didn’t want the word to get out that he could perform miracles. He was trying to protect his ministry. If everybody knew that he could perform these miracles then the multitudes would start coming to him to fix their problems. I think that the quantity and quality of wine tells us that the best is saved for the end of the age.

The alcoholics probably point out this miracle because if Jesus would change water to wine then it must be ok to drink it. But I don’t think that alcoholics are drinking the best wine usually they are drinking the rot gut wine. Drinking wine is fine. It is the drunkenness that is not ok. If we are not alcoholics then we can relax and enjoy a glass of wine. If we ae alcoholics then we don’t get to.

I think the reason that Mary pushes Jesus to solve the wedding host’s problem is because in her heart she knew that his time had come. She knew he could solve the problem and he did. I think that her words were appropriate because he did solve the problem. I would categorize Jesus’ reply as one answering his mother. We don’t know what the custom was at the time but I would have addressed her as mother or mom. I think that he went ahead with the miracle because he probably knew that his mother was right.

The reason that we are “too busy” to spend time with friends and relatives is because we have chosen work over being with our friends. Jesus’ attendance at the wedding tells us he is interested in everything that we do and wants our marriage to work out. The way that we can apply this leaning in our own lives is to reasonably put our friends above our work and make time for them.

I think that Jesus applied most of the prophecy of Daniel when he told Nathanael that he would see the heavens open and the angels coming down to help him. The Son of Man will complete his ministry when he comes the second time.

Jesus deals with Nathanael’s skepticism my telling him something that he did. The nature of the miracle is that Jesus knew Nathanael before he ever met him. Nathanael bestowed on Jesus the respect that was needed and called him the King of Israel.

The role that Andrew played in Simon Peter’s conversion is to introduce him to Jesus. The reason that so many Christians substitute bring a person to Jesus with bringing them to church is because Jesus is not here on the earth in person. The church is the closest thing that we have. The similarities is that we introduce them to Jesus and the difference is that we also introduce them to the rest of the saints in the church.

I think that didn’t tell his inquirers where he was staying because he wanted them to be with him. They could only learn about Jesus by being with him. I think that “being with Jesus” today means that we are studying our bible, praying to Jesus and being with other Christians.

John recommended that Andrew and another person to follow Jesus. The only thing that cost the recommender was he lost a follower and Jesus gained one.

John the Baptist’s baptism differs from the baptism that Jesus bring in that John only baptized with water and Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit means that we have received the Holy Spirit and He is living in us.

The title “Lamb of God” tells us that Jesus’ ministry is going to be one of sacrifice. Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus was crucified and they did all kinds of punishment to him after the Priests gave him to the gentiles which fulfilled what Isaiah 53 said.

John showed humility when he was asked who he was. He could have claimed a lot of things but he didn’t. He may not have seen himself as fulling the passage in Isaiah even though he said he was making the way for the one to follow. He was just going about what he had been called to do. John saw himself as a servant or a slave because he said he was not even worthy to loosen Jesus sandals.

The meaning of John’s baptism was that they had repented of their sins. I think that they heard John’s message and understood it and the baptism would mark the day they understood these things.

I think that John the Baptist was being hassled by the religious leaders from Jerusalem because he had a large following. They wanted to know what he had that they didn’t have. I think they were afraid that he was going to drive people away from them and they wouldn’t be able to have the power they wanted. John understood his mission as the one who was the calling in the wilderness and preparing the way for Jesus. Since the Jews didn’t believe that the messiah was coming then there would have been a lot of conflict from John’s mission.

The meaning of Jesus being the “Only God’ or the “Only Begotten God” is that he was fully God and he is fully man. John does seem to make a distinction between God the Father and God the Son. The meaning for our understanding the Trinity is that there are three beings in one.

The idea of God “becoming flesh” is important because we now have a God that has suffered the same things that we have suffered. He know what we go through and can better understand us. Christ’s life, crucifixion, and resurrection wouldn’t mean anything to us if He was only pretending to “become flesh”. In the Old Testament we always had a God and we were worshiping Him then but when He sent His son to us then we had somebody to relate to and somebody that better understood what we are going through. When I accepted Jesus as my savior I cleaned up my act and quit doing the things that I had been doing and started reading the Bible daily.

The meaning to “receive” Jesus is that we believe in him and we are following him. For those who believe in Jesus we have a spiritual relationship with God because we have been forgiven for our sins through Jesus Christ. For those who do not follow Jesus they have a hole in their lives and they don’t have anything to look forward to.

John was sent to “testify” that Jesus was the light and He is the one that will save them. We were sent to give other our testimony so that they might be able to see the light and turn to Jesus. Jesus told us to go into the world and make disciples. Sometimes I do well at this and other time not so good. John the Baptist was beheaded because he was showing to much light and the civic leaders didn’t like what he was saying. In the Unites States we won’t lose our lives but we will be Oster sized. When we testify to others hopefully they will see the light and turn their lives over to God.

According to the Apostle John, Jesus is fully God. The meaning that Jesus is the “Word” means that he was there when God spoke the universe into existence. This says that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He could feel the hurts that we go through.

I find it valuable to counsel with spiritual people in the Christian community most of time. It will keep me on track and I am more likely I will be able to ignore the calling of the world. I think that the danger of always going to another person to confirm God’s word is that you start relying on the person and hearing them and not God.

It is necessary to recognize and then surrender our desires so that we can be doing the things that God wants us to be doing. If we don’t we will follow the evils of this world. By holding on to sin we distort what we thing we are hearing from God because we are trying to justify our sin and therefore we will ignore that small voice.