A fisherman’s vocabulary

Thursday 7-30-15 (Home Modesto, California)

Scripture reading:  Isaiah 60-62    John 1

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  John 1:1-8  In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. NLT

O.  John, the beloved, introduces Jesus to us in a most remarkable way.  He goes directly to the heart of the issue to let us know that Jesus was God, the Creator, in the flesh.  In the 17^th verse he quotes John the Baptist as contrasting Jesus with Moses.  Moses brought the law which showed us the justice of God, but now Jesus has come to show us another facet of God’s greatness… his grace and truth.

A.  When I started Bible School at Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, I took a class in Koine Greek, the language of John’s original writing of these scriptures and of most of the New Testament.  82 year old Dr. Milliken was my professor, a wonderful man of God and one of the three founders of this seminary.  He explained that we would start in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, since John, unlike the physician, Luke, had only been a fisherman and thus used the simplest vocabulary for our first studies.  However, we quickly discovered that John, the beloved, was not just writing a history of events that had happened.  He was presenting with his simple words… profound eternal truths that would shake nations.

P.  Lord Jesus, You know where the pages of my Bible wear ragged first.  It is always the Gospel of John.  From the first verse to the last there can be no doubt of Your divine majesty.  The law of Moses, engraved in stone by the Creator’s fingers centuries earlier, would now be balanced out with Your life on earth, the Creator Himself demonstrating in living color… Your grace and truth.  I melt into a bundle at your feet and once again can feel Your grace and truth washing over me.  Oh Lord, please prepare me to be an effective voice, like that of John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness of this age.  Amen.

Ralph