same site - new content

2011-10-04T14:53:00.000+02:00

It's time to do away with the old stuff and try something new.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12
English Standard Version (ESV)
¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

First time

2010-12-20T12:36:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was my first time preaching in church. It was a good experience.
It was the fourth and last in a Advent series called: Jesus in the Gospels. Every week we took one gospel and looked at how Jesus was portrayed in that specific gospel.
We started in the gospel of Mark. In that book we see a ‘real life’ Jesus; we read a lot about His life and his actions, we see his emotions very clearly. In the book of Mark, Jesus is primarily portrayed as a Servant.
The second week we were in the gospel of Matthew. Being a Jew Himself, Matthew wrote His gospel for the Jews. He used a lot of the symbols, rituals and examples that the Jews would understand. He wanted to let them know that Jesus was there long-awaited Messiah - the King of the Jews. He is the Savior of Gods chosen people.

The third week we took another step back to paint a bigger picture and we looked into the book of Luke where Jesus is shown to be the savior of all of mankind! Jesus came to earth, not just to be the savior of the people of Israel, but of the Greeks and the Romans - of you and me too.

And then yesterday it was my turn to go through the gospel of John were we looked at yet another side of Jesus. This time we didn't so much take a step back to see the bigger picture, we turned our view completely - to Heaven.
In the gospel of John, Jesus is shown to be the One and only Son of God. He is revealed as God Himself.
It was a great experience studying this side of Jesus. I've learned a lot during the process. Not only on the subject itself, but also about the whole dynamic of preparing a teaching, trying to be yourself (but not too much), trying to be full of confidence (but in a humble way), making the preparation of the teaching very important (but not more important than family and other 'first responsibilities').

See my outline in yesterday's post.

4th Advent: John’s Gospel - the Divine Jesus

2010-12-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

4th Advent: John’s Gospel - the Divine Jesus

Amsterdam50 -- 2010.12.19 -- Michaël Belgraver
The following text is a summary of the sermon; the complete text can be found here.
All Scripture references are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV), unless noted otherwise.

During the past few weeks, we’ve seen Jesus through the eyes of the different writers of the Gospels:

In Mark, we saw Jesus portrayed as a servant
Matthew describes Jesus from a Jewish perspective - as their King
In Luke we find Jesus to be the savior of all of mankind

Today we turn our gaze to heaven, so to say, to see yet another side of Jesus, through the Gospel of John.

We’ve become so familiar with the stories from the Bible, that sometimes we see Jesus to much as ‘one of us’ and have too little attention for His first nature: that of being God.
Of course, we must follow Jesus and become like Him, but there is a huge difference between Jesus and ourselves.

Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in His own image, ...
2 Corinthians 4:4 - ... Christ, who is the image of God.

When we have no longer a clear picture of who Jesus truly is, we will never be able to understand what He truly did.

Today, we’ll walk through John’s Gospel and focus on a few words that keep coming back through all of the book:

Word
Light
Life

Word
John presents Jesus as the Word of God; the Word that God spoke.

Compare John 1:1-3 with Genesis 1:1-5
Read Isaiah 55:10-11; compare this with John 17

The Word of God came to earth to become human.

John 1:14
We see who God is through the life and work of Jesus

Jesus is God. He was with God form the beginning and has remained God always; even when He came to earth (see Philippians 2:5-7).

Light
Light has a special meaning in John’s Gospel; he uses it 22 out of 23 times pointing to Jesus. In all other Gospels this only happens in a prophecy from the Old Testament.

John 1:5
John 1:9 - the true Light

Light was the precondition for creation and the true Light is the precondition for creation’s return to God.

John 8:12 - Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
What does this mean?

In the Bible, the word light is being used in many situations; not just as a light-source or light as the existence of light itself, but also to connect it, as some sort of synonym, to other words. See for example Psalm 43:3 and Isaiah 59:9.
Here’s a whole list of uses of the word light:

contrast to darkness
source of light
light itself
instruction
truth
good
salvation
life
peace
rejoicing
covenant
justice and righteousness
presence and favor of God
glory of God himself

Which of these words fits best with John 8:12: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””
I couldn’t choose; but maybe that’s the whole point.
Jesus is the true light; so He is all of these descriptions in its most true form!
Jesus is:

the true contrast to darkness
the true source of light
the true light itself
the true instruction
the true truth
the true good
the true salvation
the true life
the true peace
the true rejoicing
the true covenant
the true justice and righteousness
the true presence and favor of God
the true glory of God himself.

Jesus is the true glory of God.

Hebrews 1:3
2 Corinthians 4:4

Life
John showed us that Jesus is God by calling Him the Word and the true Light. John desperately wanted to let us know that Jesus is also Life - eternal life in particular.
My question to you is:

Do you live with the knowledge that Jesus is God, that He has rescued you from eternal death, so that you can be with Him forever?
Wouldn’t our lives look totally different when we would truly believe that?

When we read the stories in the Bible, it’s so easy to completely miss what they are all about. We run the risk of viewing these stories as just that: stories, instead of events in history that have changed the world forever. Events that changed your and my life forever.

Everything Jesus did, from creation to His birth, death and resurrection - He did to show Gods glory and power through it.

We must not see Jesus as ‘one of us’
However, we cannot ignore the fact that he was human
Only through His life and deeds will we truly see who God is

We have no excuse not to praise Him, no reason not to love Him.

Questions:

Do you believe that Jesus is Gods Son - the second Person of the Trinity?
Do you see and worship Him as God?
Is He the perfect and true Light in your life?