Advent introduction

For the next 21 days we will be looking at the opening chapter or so of the Gospels of John, Matthew and Luke. Today we are beginning to look at the first 18 verses of John. Firstly, I would like to re-introduce you to the glorious book of John. One of the three disciples most intimately involved with Jesus, by the time John wrote his version of events in Ephesus it was around the turn of the century, so about 65 years after Jesus had been crucified. He was writing particularly to emphasis the fact that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. The Church had begun with the great majority being Jews, but it is agreed by scholars that thirty years after Christ's ascension there would have been 100,000 Greeks in the Church to every Jew!! The Church was full of converts who had no idea who the Messiah was as prophesied in the Old Testament , so how was Christianity to be presented to these new Christians and to the world in general? The challenges for the Church then have many echoes with the predicament the Church today faces, where the vast majority do not know the name of Jesus, except for baby Jesus at Christmas. Most people in the Western world today have no belief in God and most of the minority who have a faith or are adherents to a religion are Buddhists, Muslims or New Age devotees. Jesus may be seen as a good man who was very wise, but what elevates Him to the position we give Him: Lord of Lords and King of Kings? Hopefully, as we journey through these Bible passages over the next couple of weeks, it will help us to answer that central question.