Author Archives: Michael W.

Text: John 21:1-14 Manifestations

Leave a reply

May 15, 2016  John 21:1-14

 

What a joyful surprise!  The crucified Lord is back with them.  How would you react?  What would your conversations with Him be like now, after the cross and after the resurrection?  How would your routine be changed?  This passage gives us an opportunity to see the initial effect on the lives of the disciples.  What was the Christian life like after the resurrection and before Pentecost?

You may notice that there is no handout to download this week.  Hopefully the handouts we have been using in our study and discussion group have been helpful.  Having a convenient way to read and mark up a passage, all using the same translation, is helpful in the process of learning the skills of inductive Bible study.  However, some situations (an impromptu conversation over coffee, for example) may not have a readily-available handout prepared.  Also, looking at different translations together can add another layer to a discussion – sometimes helpful, sometimes confusing, usually profitable.  This week use your own Bible translation (or several) to read and study the passage.  The suggestions in the article on Methodical Bible Study provide good reminders of the kinds of questions that will stir your thinking in the Observation, Interpretation, and Application phases of study.  Read the passage and come to the group ready to ask questions to help all of us learn from this text.

 

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-20 One Body

Leave a reply

May 13, 2016  1 Corinthians 12:1-20

 

Paul begins a new section addressing specific questions from the Corinthians, marked by another “Now concerning…” introduction (cf. 7:1, 7:25, 8:1).  This topic flows right out of the previous sections.  After the distractions of cultural issues (hair length and head coverings) and arrogant abuses of the Lord’s Supper, now he turns to the church gathering in general.  Why do we meet together?  What should that look like?  How do we relate to each other when we are so different?

Hopefully the handouts we have been using in our study and discussion group have been helpful.  Having a convenient way to read and mark up a passage, all using the same translation, is helpful in the process of learning the skills of inductive Bible study.  However, some situations (an impromptu conversation over coffee, for example) may not have a readily available prepared handout.  Also, looking at different translations together can add another layer to a discussion – sometimes helpful, sometimes confusing, usually profitable.  This week use your own Bible translation (or several) to read and study the passage.  The suggestions in the article on Methodical Bible Study provide good reminders of the kinds of questions that will stir your thinking in the Observation, Interpretation, and Application phases of study.  Read the passage and come to the group ready to ask questions to help all of us learn from this text.

 

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Communion

Leave a reply

May 6, 2016  1 Corinthians 11:17-24

 

The Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Mass – the diversity of descriptions reflects the wide spectrum of practice associated with the sacrament (or the ordinance, or the memorial, or the sacrifice – we don’t even always agree about what it is).  Somehow from very early in the history of the church, this central display of Christ’s work has been distorted into a dividing point.  The Corinthian Christians may not have been the first to go wrong over the celebration of Communion (the term I will use here), but they certainly experienced divisions.  Paul’s response to the chaos that Communion had become might help us see what it ought to be for us.

The section does not start off well (for the first Corinthian readers):  “I do not praise you” (1 Corinthians 11:17a).  In fact, he says they are worse off after they meet (v. 17b), quite a serious criticism of a church gathering!  His first confrontation is over divisions, or “schisms” (schismata, σχίσματα, v. 18).  Apparently Paul is shocked; he only “partly” believes it.  Division in the church is bad enough, but (as we soon learn) the division is over Communion.  Paul can hardly believe how wrong they have gone.  But they have a decided tendency to find just about anything to differ about (cf. 1:10‑13; 3:4‑6, 21‑23; 4:6), so he needs to address this expression of their divisiveness.

One question that came up in our discussion related to the next thing Paul says:  “There must be factions among you” (v. 19).  Was he encouraging factions (lit. “heresies,” haireseis, αἱρέσεις)?  Or was he saying that factions were inevitable?  It seems unlikely that Paul would be stirring up the divisions he has been trying to eliminate in the church.  However, he does not want divisions to be ignored or covered over lightly.  The inevitability of disagreements has a potentially positive outcome:  “that those who are approved may become evident among you” (v. 19).  If A and B disagree, A may be right, or B may be right, or both may be wrong.  The benefit of open (but courteous and respectful) disagreement is to find truth.  Pretending we “all just get along” and ignoring differences blurs genuine truth.  When he mentions “those who are approved” he is not describing a popularity contest, but a test of genuineness.  “Approved” (dokimoi, δόκιμοι) means refined, tested and approved, proved to be genuine.  (We saw the negative form of this word earlier when Paul expressed concern about being “disqualified” in 1 Corinthians 9:27.)  The word group (noun, verb, adjective) is used thirty-nine times in the New Testament, suggesting that such proven genuineness is an important part of the Christian experience.  With that important goal in mind, if Paul was not encouraging disagreements, he was at least encouraging them to work out the truth.

The specific division in this instance was over the “Lord’s Supper” (v. 20).  He scolds them that the Supper is not the main reason they meet.  Instead of an atmosphere of fellowship with each other and communion with God, Paul describes a potluck where nobody waits in line.  Helping myself first with no thought of leaving something for others, even if it means overindulging (v. 21) seems to be the mindset.  The problem might have been about early arrivals not waiting for others (mentioned in v. 33).  There could have been cliques of friends who brought food but wouldn’t share.  There were likely economic divisions that would “shame those who have nothing” (v. 22b).  Our group was not certain if this was a first-century version of a potluck, where each family or individual brought food for themselves, or possibly to share.  Or maybe the homeowner (whose prosperity allowed him to have a house large enough to meet in) provided the food.  In any case, the problem of the rich having (or taking) special privileges at the expense of the poor (as in James 2:1-4) would squeeze out the believers of lower social rank.  They would be left hungry amid their stuffed and drunken brethren (v. 21).  No wonder Paul had no praise for them (v. 22b).  Their self-obsessed behavior even in a church gathering to remember the death of Jesus revealed not their genuineness but their scorn for the Body of Christ, the church, and their disdain for His people.  Earlier Paul had warned them about the danger of confusing or even blending pagan practices with Communion (10:21).  Now he warns of an equal danger of the relational sin of “despising” the assembled people of God (11:22).

In contrast, Paul reminded them of what “coming together to eat the Lord’s Supper” should look like (vv. 23-26).  In words that most Christians recognize and can probably repeat, Paul summarizes the actions and the significance of the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with His disciples.  The details of that description were not a significant part of our limited discussion time.  What we did note was Paul’s introduction:  “I received from the Lord” (v. 23a).  When and how (at his conversion on the road to Damascus?  By a special revelation at some later time?  Some other means?) are not stated. What is clear is Paul’s emphatic authority for these instructions.  Several places in this letter he says puzzling things about his teaching (“I give instructions, not I, but the Lord” in 7:10;  “I say, not the Lord” a few verses later in 7:12; “judge for yourselves” in 11:13, just before the present passage).  Here there is no ambiguity.  Paul is telling them exactly what Jesus told him.  This is what Communion should look like, and this is what it should be about.  Our discussion about hair and head coverings in the previous passage raised questions about timeless and time-bound truth.  Paul seems clear that this topic, directly from Jesus, is not a cultural issue, but is timeless until Jesus returns (v. 26).

That brief but authoritative paragraph probably made some of the church members feel a bit awkward, maybe even ashamed of their behavior.  Paul doesn’t depend on their emotional response.  He continues forcefully (vv. 27-30).  What they are doing potentially makes them “guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord” (v. 27) and “drinking judgment” on themselves (v. 29) and even risking physical effects of sickness or death (v. 30).  Paul’s exhortation to avoid participating in Communion in “an unworthy manner) is self-examination (v. 28).  And here again we find the wording from verse 19 about those who are “approved.”  Here, using the verb form, each one is to “examine” himself (dokimazeto, δοκιμαζέτω) to test himself for genuineness, for authenticity.

That verse is often used as a part of a Communion service when each member thinks about their own life, perhaps confessing sin or repenting of behavior that needs to change.  That self-examination is a worthy exercise, but may not be exactly all Paul had in mind as he wrote this instruction to the Corinthians.  Specifically, he wants to ensure that they “judge the body rightly” (v. 29b) with the result that “if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (v. 31).  Our group discussed what “judge the body rightly” might mean.  One suggestion was that the “body” represented by the bread was the body of Jesus, so the verse means we need to examine our relationship with the Lord.  Or since the bread represents the body we should be sure we are remembering that symbolism as we eat the bread during Communion.

In the context of the divisions in the Corinthian church and the selfish behavior at church gatherings, Paul could be reminding them that they are the body of Christ.  They need to “judge accurately” (diakrinon, διακρίνων) or “recognize” (NIV) the true nature of the body of Christ in His church.  While the preceding context certainly is more about the bread representing the body, Paul is about to move into his extended discussion of the church as the body (1 Corinthians 12-14).  This double meaning of “body” might be a transition point in his teaching.  We would do well to think of our relationships with others in the body of Christ as our preparation for receiving Communion.

That kind of self-examination is reminiscent of a similar warning expressed by Jesus regarding worship in general:  “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (Matthew 5:23-24).  Relationships affect the authenticity of our worship.  Relational sin always pollutes worship.  Even in the context of the old system of animal sacrifice Jesus put a priority on relationships that had been corrupted by anger or gossip or slander (Matthew 5:21-22).  Other types of sin may come to mind when we are exhorted to examine ourselves before Communion.  We should be particularly thorough in our self-examination regarding relationships when we celebrate and remember and share in the one true Sacrifice.

 

John 20:18-31 Thomas

Leave a reply

May 8, 2016  John 20:18-31

Imagine how startled the disciples must have been.  The leader they had followed for three years had been brutally executed.  In the fear that they might be next, they were meeting behind locked doors late in the day.  Whatever hope they had taken from the report of Mary Magdalene (v. 18) might have been fading.  She spoke of a risen Jesus in the morning, but now the day was ending (v. 19), and they had seen nothing of Him.  Maybe Mary was mistaken; women witnesses were not generally accepted anyway.  One suggestion in our group discussion went back to the words she had reported from Jesus, “Go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father….’” (v. 17, present tense).  Maybe Mary was right, and He had risen from the dead, and they had missed Him.  Maybe He had already gone back to heaven.

And there He is, standing in front of them!  Walk into a room you think is empty and you suddenly realize someone is there (a friend or your spouse).  You experience a sudden shock.  That might be a hint of what the dejected disciples felt.  Another comment in our discussion reminded us of an earlier reaction of the disciples.  Seeing a figure coming to their boat across the open water, they feared a ghost (Matthew 14:26; Mark 6:49).  No wonder (as our group observed) the first words of Jesus to them were, “Peace to you” (v. 19) or in Hebrew or Aramaic, “Shalom.”  If you have been the friend or spouse who unintentionally startled someone, your first reaction is often to comfort and reassure them.  That was Jesus’ first response as well.  He wanted them to recover from their initial alarm.

The first thing He did was to show them the evidence of His death (v. 20).  We briefly pondered whether or not the disciples could recognize Him.  Mary had not known Him at first (v. 14), nor did two other followers even after walking and talking with Him for quite some time (Luke 24:13).  What His resurrected body looked like and how it was different (if it was) is not part of John’s storytelling.  As often happens in Scripture, some tantalizing detail we would like to know is omitted.  Trusting that the Spirit-inspired text tells us what we need to know, we didn’t dwell on that question.

What the text is clear about is more important in Bible study.  His wounded hands and pierced side showed them what He wanted them to know.  It really was Him.  Who else would have the marks of a crucifixion?  He was not a ghost, since he clearly had a body (although walls and locked doors were not obstacles).  He had died (the Romans made sure of that, John 19:32), and He was standing before them in the flesh.  He had not ascended to heaven, at least not yet.  They may not have understood everything, but they understood enough to respond with joy (v. 20).

Perhaps their response was so vigorous that once more Jesus wanted to focus their attention by saying “Peace to you” (v. 21a).  As much as He must have appreciated their joy (cf. John 15:11, 16:24; 17:13), He wanted them to hear His next words carefully:  “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (v. 21).  A key thread running throughout the Gospel according to John is the mission of Jesus sent by the Father, mentioned over forty times.  That theme takes on a whole new dimension when Jesus “passes the baton” (as one of our group described it).  The same mission is to be continued by His followers.  The mission is exactly the same, “just as” (kathos, καθὼς) the Father sent the Son, the Son sends His followers.  Understanding the mission of Jesus that John has been describing for twenty chapters is important for us to understand our mission.

Another suggestion from our group offered an interesting connection to a puzzling statement from the previous passage.  When Mary finally recognized Jesus (John 20:16), the words of Jesus to her are not what we might expect:  “Stop clinging to Me” (NASB) or “Do not hold on to me” (NIV) or even “Don’t touch me” (TLB).  What was Jesus telling Mary?  Was there some mystical issue about not touching His resurrected body?  Our group noted that later (v. 27) Jesus invited Thomas to freely touch Him.  Trying to consider every detail of the text, our group wondered about the rest of Jesus’ statement to Mary:  “I have not yet ascended to the Father” (v. 17b).  Could something have happened, such as a brief return to heaven?  Would that have made a difference in His “touchability” for Thomas?  John records nothing about that, so we did not pursue that speculation.  One member of the discussion had a much more plausible explanation, especially when we saw the instructions Jesus gave to the disciples about their mission.  Perhaps the Lord was saying, “Don’t linger here with Me.  Hurry on to tell My brethren that I am soon to leave.  It is time to transfer the Father’s mission to them.”  That passion for His Father’s mission affected His response to Mary and later His response to the disciples.

Jesus continued the instruction about His mission that was now their mission.  “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (v. 22).  Not letting any question go unasked, our group wondered:  Did He just exhale?  Did He go to each disciple individually?  What did that scene look like? While not sure exactly what Jesus did, we agreed that He performed some visible action that symbolized the Spirit.  After He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” John reports – nothing.  No mention is made of any visible sign.  The text doesn’t even say if anything happened to the disciples’ hearts.  What did this scene have to do with Pentecost a few weeks later?

Jesus seems to be telling the disciples, the newly designated carriers of the Father’s mission, to be ready for the Holy Spirit, to be expectant in their anticipation.  He had told them that the Spirit would only come after His departure (John 16:7), sent by the Father (John 14:26).  Perhaps His act of breathing on them was a memorable image to help them look forward to that event.  Whatever the physical act meant, the point was clear.  The mission of the Father was to be carried out in the ministry of the soon-to-come Holy Spirit.  That part of Jesus’ instruction might relate to another possible interpretation of His words to Mary.  “Don’t hold on to Me” might be taken as “Don’t continue to depend on my physical presence.”  As He prepared to return to the Father, His followers needed to adjust their thinking.  He had been with them for three years.  They could talk with Him, listen to His teaching, and watch Him interact with others.  But now He was leaving.  Part of being ready for the Holy Spirit was the adjustment of learning to depend on and listen to the Holy Spirit.  Continuing to depend on the incarnate presence of Jesus would not serve them after the Ascension.  Their focus had to shift to following the less visible but more far-reaching presence of the Holy Spirit.  That shift would expand the mission of the Father across the world.

The mission Jesus described has another significant quality.  The Son passes the mission of the Father by the agency of the Holy Spirit.  The baptismal formula Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19 describes the disciple-making process, “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  Likewise in our current passage, the mission of the Father is inseparably connected to the work of the Holy Spirit.  “The ministry we have entered is the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world.”[1]

Jesus has described the authority of the mission, the Father, and the primary agent of the mission, the Holy Spirit.  Finally He describes the substance of the mission:  the forgiveness of sins (v. 23).  Once again we find ourselves discussing a verse that challenges our thinking, especially as Protestants.  As one member commented, “This is a tough verse!”  Forgiving sins and retaining sins (or holding onto, krateo, κρατεω) is somehow in the hands of the disciples.  Those with a Roman Catholic background would recognize the idea of a priest absolving a penitent after confession.  Is that what Jesus is describing?  He made a statement that sounds similar in Matthew 18:18, using different terminology (“binding” and “loosing”).  In that context, He is teaching about sin within the church:  confronting sin and restoring the sinner.  The extreme result is to remove the unrepentant offender from the fellowship.  Instead of an individual priestly function, the instruction in John 20 may also be more about the community of Christians.  Both verbs are plural:  If you all forgive…if you all retain.  As in the case of Matthew 18 the responsibility belongs to the community of believers, the church, not just a particular member who is a clergyman.  Whatever Jesus meant by forgiving and retaining sins, the unmistakable substance of the mission of the Father is forgiveness:  redemption and reconciliation and recovery of the shared communion between the creatures and their Triune Creator.

And then there is Thomas.  Absent when Jesus first appeared to the others, he apparently didn’t believe his fellow disciples any more than he believed Mary.  When they told him (virtually quoting Mary’s original report), “We have seen the Lord!” (v. 26), that was not good enough for him.  Seeing was not to be believing.  The proof would be in the touching, actually feeling for himself the horrible marks in Jesus’ body.  (We speculated about the nature of the marks:  scars, open wounds, something else?  Once again an intriguing question unanswerable from the text.)  Regardless of his brash words, Thomas, like the other disciples, needed only to see the risen Christ.  Jesus invited Thomas to explore His wounds all he wanted.  His response is at least as enthusiastic as the other disciples a week earlier:  “My Lord and my God” (v. 28).

Thomas shows us a couple of things about doubt.  He was skeptical, not cynical.  He wanted evidence, but he responded when the evidence was there.  A cynic often asks for evidence or proof, but when confronted with reasonable confirmation, insists on more.  The cynic wants to argue, the skeptic wants to know.  Thomas wanted to know if the rumor about Jesus was true.  When he saw it was true, he responded enthusiastically.  Jesus affirmed even the doubt.  Rather than rebuking Thomas, He encouraged his evidence gathering, “Reach here with your finger” (v. 27).  Those who don’t have the opportunity to touch or even to see are blessed in their belief (v. 29).  Other examples can be found in the Gospels when Jesus recognized questioners as cynics who were not genuinely looking for truth.  His response to them was less than inviting.

This passage describes such a pinnacle in the story John is telling that he leaves the story briefly to make sure his readers recognize its significance.  This isn’t the whole story (v. 30, since even all the world couldn’t hold enough books for it all, John 21:25).  However, John is clear in the reason he has recorded the story in the way he has:  “That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (v.31).  John has a definite agenda.  He is already on the mission of the Father that Jesus had passed to the disciples.  He wants his story to communicate at least those three crucial points:

  • The story is about Jesus, a historical figure, not just a legend or a symbol.
  • The story is about the Christ, the Messiah, the “one anointed” for a particular mission with the authority to carry out that mission.
  • The story is about the Son of God, the eternal Word, “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father,”[2] the second Person of the Godhead.

 

[1] Stephan Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God:  The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service (Downers Grove, Illinois:  IVP Books, 2005), 9-10; emphasis in the original.

[2] http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm

John 20:1-18 Risen Indeed

Leave a reply

May 1, 2016  John 20:1-18

John’s storytelling may have reached its peak in the previous chapter:  the unjust sentence, the callous gambling soldiers, the bickering over the wording on the cross – so many details show how those in power were indifferent to what was happening.  The pathos of a mother watching her Son die is in contrast to the cold-hearted religious leaders eager to hasten death.  Loyal followers abandon secrecy and provide a tomb as one last service to Jesus.  Reading such a story for the first time we would ask, “What could possibly happen to redeem this terrible tragedy?” Continue reading →

Text: John 20:18-31 Thomas

Leave a reply

May 8, 2016  John 20:18-31

There is a rumor that Jesus has risen from the dead.  The women witnesses reported it.  Peter and John found odd circumstances at an empty tomb.  Mary Magdalene claims to have seen and spoken with a living Jesus.

Too good to be true?  Where do doubt and faith intersect?  How does John report the experiences of the majority of the disciples and the experience of Thomas?  What can we learn about our own seasons of doubt?  Think about times you have struggled with questions or uncertainty (or what you might be struggling with right now) as you read the passage for our discussion group this week.

Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Communion

Leave a reply

May 6, 2016  1 Corinthians 11:17-24

Paul moves from general instructions about church gatherings and the participation of male and female members of the congregation to a very specific part of Christian meetings:  the Lord’s Supper.  He is concerned about how that part of worship relates to the general atmosphere in the Corinthian church.  A significant part of this passage is probably very familiar, often read at Communion services in churches.  As you read the text, remember the most recent time you received Communion (last Sunday for many of us).  Read the familiar parts with fresh eyes.  What might you see that may have been blurred by frequent repetition?  What can we learn about Paul’s vision for the church from this passage?

 

Hopefully the handouts we have been using in our study and discussion group have been helpful.  Having a convenient way to read and mark up a passage, all using the same translation, is helpful in the process of learning the skills of inductive Bible study.  However, some situations (an impromptu conversation over coffee, for example) may not have a readily available prepared handout.  Also, looking at different translations together can add another layer to a discussion – sometimes helpful, sometimes confusing, usually profitable.  This week use your own Bible translation (or several) to read and study the passage.  The suggestions in the article on Methodical Bible Study provide good reminders of the kinds of questions that will stir your thinking in the Observation, Interpretation, and Application phases of study.  Read the passage and come to the group ready to ask questions to help all of us learn from this text.

 

1 Corinthians 11:1-22 Men & Women

Leave a reply

April 29, 2016  1 Corinthians 11:1-22

Our discussion group was about halfway through our time together when one member asked the question crucial to interpreting a passage like this:

“Is there a distinction between timeless truth and time-bound (or cultural) truth?”  That question opens many others.  Are both legitimate categories?  Is there a way to tell the difference?  How binding is “cultural truth” (if there is such a thing)?  Both “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and “Let a woman cover her head” are in the Bible.  Are we justified in interpreting and applying them in different ways? Continue reading →

Text: John 20:1-18 Risen Indeed

Leave a reply

May 1, 2016  John 20:1-18

“On the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures.”[1]

What would seem like the low point of the entire Bible, the crucifixion of the central Character, is followed immediately by the high point.  Read the text and think about the story John is telling. Why did he include some details and leave out others?  What other parts of the story are you curious about?  How did people react to the risen Lord, and how did He respond to them?

You may notice that there is no handout to download this week.  Hopefully the handouts we have been using in our study and discussion group have been helpful.  Having a convenient way to read and mark up a passage, all using the same translation, is helpful in the process of learning the skills of inductive Bible study.  However, some situations (an impromptu conversation over coffee, for example) may not have a readily-available handout prepared.  Also, looking at different translations together can add another layer to a discussion – sometimes helpful, sometimes confusing, usually profitable.  This week use your own Bible translation (or several) to read and study the passage.  The suggestions in the article on Methodical Bible Study provide good reminders of the kinds of questions that will stir your thinking in the Observation, Interpretation, and Application phases of study.  Read the passage and come to the group ready to ask questions to help all of us learn from this text.

A note about marking:  Handouts are especially helpful in being able to mark up a passage (“circle all the verbs” or “underline all the people mentioned” or to write notes or questions about the text).  Without a handout (or a photocopy of the passage from your Bible) you face the decision: To mark or not to mark?  The main problem is practical.  Marking in the Bible itself is very helpful (just like using a handout).  But only for the first time you read a passage.  Next time you come to the passage (in a week or in five years) you may find it difficult to see the text with “fresh eyes.”  What God the Holy Spirit shows you in the text today may not be the same thing He wants to use in your life at another time in the future.  All those helpful circles and underlines and notes can become a distraction the next time you read the passage.  Ask yourself:  When you come to a marked-up passage, which do you read first, the inspired text or your previous notes?  (The same concern applies to study Bibles and printed footnotes – helpful but possible distractions away from what God actually said in the text.)  As mentioned above, one option is to make a photocopy of the page you are studying and use that for marking your observations and insightful interpretations.  Or even use a blank sheet of paper to make notes and comments as you read the passage.  Or mark in the Book itself – whatever is most helpful in being spiritually formed by God’s word, both today and in the future.

 

[1] http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm