All Things Seen & Unseen

The day of Pentecost was 50 days after Resurrection Sunday so how does John manage to speak of the coming of the Spirit in his gospel account (20: 19-23)? Are these two accounts to be harmonised somehow are just recognised as contradictory? I wouldn't accept either of these approaches. Both are concerned to bring everything in the Scriptures under the rubric of historicity when the Scriptures evidence in many instances a lack of concern for historical exactitude. The Scriptures were not primarily given to tell us about history. They are intended to "open the mind to the salvation which comes through believing in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 3:15, Phillips). To understand both St John and St Luke's differing accounts, we would have to examine their different renditions of the coming of the Spirit in the context of their gospel accounts. Despite the differences in timing, both connect the coming of the Spirit with the mission of the church. According to one writer , John's ...

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17.3). I have always been attracted to this passage for some unknown reason. One cannot argue that it is even the burden of the passage (vv1-5). Rather, it is explanatory as C. K. Barrett says of the 'eternal life' mentioned in verse 2. It is also a text that is a battleground between Trinitarian and non-Trinitarian views with some arguing that Jesus Christ cannot be God because Jesus says that the Father is the 'only true God'. However, this position avoids the embarrassment found in considering that eternal life is found in knowledge of God the Father and in Jesus Christ. The simple but powerfully evocative bracketting of the two speaks volumes re the status of the Son (quite apart from many other passages of scripture). Knowledge of the Father and the Son is eternal life; in this, St John is stating what every Jew knew about God. To acknowledge...

Why is the Ascension of Christ so important? Significantly, Psalm 110 (particularly verse 1) is the most quoted passage in the NT and typically it is referred to the Ascension. 'The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool". St Peter applied this verse to the Ascension of Christ in Acts 2 (vv34-35) noting that the verses could not be definitively applied to David because he did not ascend into the heavens! The full meaning of Psalm 110 is found in the Ascension to (and present Session of Christ at) the Father's right hand. The Ascension concerns authority, Christ's authority; for Jesus Christ ascended after the resurrection to where He is at the right hand of God "with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him" (1 Peter 3. 22). Significantly again, Hebrews 1, which also quotes Psalm 110 (v1), speaks of Christ's ascension by implication (1.3) but adds that Jesus the Son, sat down 'at the right hand ...

I saw this marvellous little piece on a blog today ( http://illuminations.blogs.com/illuminations/) and share it in the light of the church's focus on the Holy Spirit as we lead up to Pentecost: "We live in an age when all of the marketing and focus of the media is about ME and what I want. As a pastor, I too am regularly tempted to try to do all I can to make our church comfortable and pleasing to those who might attend. While I think it is OK to be a little "SEEKER FRIENDLY" , we must fight to truly make our churches more Holy Spirit friendly, and be a place that is welcoming to God and his Presence. We must also contend to do all we can to not feed the selfish tendencies of fallen human nature."

John 14, is overshadowed by Jesus', "where I am going you cannot come" (13: 33) and then with the issue of Peter's predicted denial. The chapter begins with the promise of Jesus' preparation of a new home in heaven for them, of his coming to take them to himself and of his being himself the very Road to the Father's house. He moves to the idea that the Father is in him and he in the Father. The works of the Son are the works of the Father but then the works of the disciples are going to be greater 'because I go to my Father.' Then comes the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit, the other Counsellor/ Comforter/ Advocate, who is another, 'just like' (so the Greek) Jesus. This Counsellor will strengthen them when they are brought before tribunals to bear witness to the Resurrection and will be not only with but in them. Jesus then said that he and the Father would love the one who has and keeps Jesus' commandments, which is equated with lovin...

St John 14 (1-14) among other things is Jesus' preparing of his disciples for his going away both at Calvary but also post-Calvary. With regard to the first, they have just heard the distressing news that Peter will betray the Lord three times before the cock crows. No wonder their hearts are troubled! However, St John, by the Holy Spirit, is also telling his readers more about the uniqueness of Jesus, the 'road' to God. In a sense, this theme has dominated his work from chapter 1. "No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (v 18). Our Lord directs their faith, not to Peter's predicted failure but to God and himself, to the road He will travel in order to go and prepare a place for them. Beautifully the writer transitions from this going with the theme of Himself as the Road, the unique Road to God. First, Jesus tells them to their consternation I suspect that they know this way he is about...

I found it interesting that in Eastertide we have Shepherd Sunday (John 10. 1-18). One compelling reason is that the Shepherd discourse brings to the fore the qualities of our Saviour as the One who suffers for his sheep and lays down his life for his sheep. This is the Easter message in the context of the middle-eastern shepherd who lies across the doorway of the sheepfold, who puts his body 'on the line'. By being the One who lies in the doorway, He is able to say, 'I am the door to the sheepfold' and 'I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture'. But more than that, St John wants to impress upon us that Jesus is unique as the door in that this shepherd not only lays down his life for the sheep but then is able by the authority vested in Him by the Father to take that life up again. No one took his life away from him. He voluntarily laid it down so that he might take it up again for all his sheep. Was t...