『The John Project』のカバーアート

The John Project

The John Project

著者： Randy Boldt
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 This podcast explores the Bible's Gospel of John a few verses at a time with a devotional perspective. キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 聖職・福音主義
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  • John 21:20-25 • Postscript

    John 21:20-25 • Postscript
    2025/06/20
    The final six verses of the Gospel of John form a kind of postscript that accomplishes three things. It establishes the basis for John’s credentials as its author, stakes his personal reputation to the veracity of what he’d written, and explains why the project involved a significant amount of purposeful curation. First, John corrected a rumor about himself, circulating among some of the early believers, that Jesus had said he wouldn’t die. This was rooted in an exchange between the Lord and Peter that had been overheard, misinterpreted, and repeated. But it appears to me that John’s purpose in bringing it up was not primarily about confirming his mortality. That would have become evident soon enough. I believe it was important to him, at the close of his gospel, to debunk any notion that he held a form of elevated status among the disciples that qualified him to write it or determined its value. I’m convinced that’s why he began setting the record straight regarding this fiction by first, as he had on three previous occasions, humbly identifying himself as a 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥. He wanted to ensure that his readers would understand he was no one special, just a recipient of the same unmerited and all-consuming love of Christ available to them as well. But he also wanted to establish that he was a credible eyewitness to what he’d written. And that’s why, referring to his physical nearness to Jesus during the Last Supper, he added that he was the one who had 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵. The Savior’s love and a front row seat to his ministry were his true credentials. And having settled that, he added his verbal signature to the document making certain no one would mistake his account for anything less than a carefully prepared and reliable treatise. Then, John closed his book with a statement of the obvious, that creating a comprehensive account of all Jesus had said and done was an impossibility. He graphically described this by saying the world isn’t big enough to contain all the books the task would require. All recorded history is curated. So, John was simply acknowledging that he’d done what every historian must do, make choices about which facts to include in their presentations based on the unique purposes that motivate their work. John had already provided the criterion for his editorial choices in chapter 20 verse 31 when he’d said, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” And it's astonishing to consider the reality that in the millennia since John penned this gospel, his Spirit-birthed purpose for writing it has been and continues to be accomplished in the lives of billions of people…including me. It was the glorious words of Jesus quoted in verse 16 of his third chapter that the Holy Spirit used to capture my heart as a young child and launch my faith journey. Of the four New Testament gospels, only John’s contain them: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I’m thoroughly incapable of expressing my praise to Jesus for his sacrifice described in that passage and for the salvation it purchased for me. But as I now conclude my journey through this gospel and the devotional commentary that has resulted, it’s also impossible for me to adequately articulate my gratitude for John’s willingness to partner with the Holy Spirit in providing us such a stunning account of God’s amazing grace.
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    4 分
  • John 21:18-19 • Follow Me

    John 21:18-19 • Follow Me
    2025/05/15
    I’ve just celebrated my seventieth birthday. To use an American football metaphor, that means I’m deep in the fourth quarter. And I’ll admit it’s tempting to allow my focus on the importance of the current play to become distracted by speculation regarding the uncertainties of the endgame. But when I do, I become self-focused, risk--averse, less available to the promptings of the Spirit, and ineffective in my service to Jesus. In John 21:18-19, having just led Peter through a process of repentance for his denials and into the restoration of his calling, we see how Jesus sought to help him avoid those pitfalls. The Lord began his comments with a phrase translated as, “Most assuredly, I say to you,” an expression John used twenty-five times in his gospel to capture Christ’s intention to signal the importance of what he was about to say. So, although the words that followed held significant implications for Peter, it’s clear Jesus meant that all of us should pay close attention to them. The Lord used prophetic language – long on insight but short on details – to describe the self-determination that characterized Peter’s early life and to set that in contrast with what would be true at its end. But the specifics regarding that future were so vague that before completing his record of the full quote, John added commentary to make sure we wouldn’t miss the fact that Jesus was predicting how Peter would die. Christian tradition holds that Peter was crucified during Emperor Nero’s reign and asked to be executed upside down because he felt unworthy of dying in the same manner as his Messiah. Although this traditional account aligns with what Jesus predicted, it’s historically unverifiable. So, we can’t know if it accurately reflects what happened or is merely a version of the events that was shaped after the fact to conform to the Lord’s prophecy. But what we can know for certain from John’s explanation is that what Jesus said about the circumstances of Peter’s passing, however hard it may have been for him to hear, was less a prediction about the manner of his death and more about how it would glorify God. And that says more about the life Peter was being called to live than about how it would end. Unless a person’s LIFE honors God, their death won’t. And that provides us with context for the Lord’s next two-word sentence. Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me.” And there would have been no mystery about what he meant. Peter had heard him use that simple phrase several times over the course of their relationship. He would have understood that he was being invited to walk in the footsteps of his Master, to literally be his 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. And when enticed by either the devil or his own thoughts to fixate with worry or fear on how or when that path would reach its conclusion, he would have remembered the time recorded in Mark 8:34 when Jesus said, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” I think it’s clear that what Jesus wanted Peter to understand was that in the space between the beginning and end of his life he was being invited to pursue a way of being that should characterize every Jesus-follower, an invitation to live our lives in a way that reflects our Savior’s. Fully aware of the cross before him, he refused to be distracted by that. He inhabited every waking moment clothed in his calling with a clear-eyed perspective on eternity and the importance of honoring God in the here-and-now in a way that flows seamlessly into the forever-after. And I want to live like that. So, I’m asking Jesus to help me, regardless of how much time I have left, to ignore the clock, keep my head in the game, play my heart out, and leave it all on the field.
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    5 分
  • John 21:15-17 • Character Arc

    John 21:15-17 • Character Arc
    2025/04/15
    Recently, some of our grandchildren have become involved in theater arts. So, I’m learning a whole new vocabulary that includes the term, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘤. In the context of storytelling, that refers to the change or growth a character experiences over the course of a story. And John 21:15-17 reveals the climax of Peter’s. But I don’t mean to suggest that any part of this gospel is fictionalized. I just mean that John’s warts-and-all account of Peter’s spiritual journey provides us with a richly genuine portrait of a VERY real person whose glaring humanity was on full display as he grew in his relationship with Jesus. And because that helps us locate our flawed selves in the story of redemption, John front-loaded our expectations regarding the significance of Peter’s role in this gospel by describing the moment early on when Jesus changed his name (1:42). In Scripture, when someone experienced a divinely initiated name change, it marked a revision in that person’s identity from one version of themselves to another. But it wasn’t a recognition of what was already true. It announced a transformation that would be the result of a process. And in Peter’s case, an important part of that process remained unfinished. On the night of Christ’s betrayal, Peter had emphatically denied three times ever having had anything to do with him. And that glaring failure hung unresolved in the post-crucifixion atmosphere like the proverbial elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge. It hadn’t been addressed during either of the first two times Peter had been in the presence of his resurrected Master. But when Jesus appeared to the disciples in Galilee, it’s clear the Lord intended to make certain that dark part of the apostle’s story would not be its end. So, Jesus asked him, “Do you love me more than these?” Although that question could be taken more than one way, it seems obvious the Lord was referring to the other disciples and asking if Peter loved him more than THEY loved him. And that would have exposed the painful subject of Peter’s denials by reminding him of his previous boast (Matthew 26:31-33) that even if the other disciples abandoned Jesus, he never would. But the Lord’s intent was not to shame his disciple. It was to restore him. So, this passage captures an extended Q & A between them that allowed Peter to repent of his three denials by offering three expressions of devotion while providing Jesus three opportunities to express his commitment to Peter by affirming his pastoral calling. Through the centuries since, commentators have offered additional insights concerning this exchange that are certainly worthy of consideration. These have mainly centered around the four sets of Greek synonyms employed by John to capture this conversation, especially 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘱𝘦 and 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘰, the pair translated into English as 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦. But there’s enough uncertainty around these interpretations that I think it’s best to stay focused on what’s undeniable. It’s crystal clear that Jesus refused to leave Peter’s discipleship unfinished. And that’s true for you and me as well. Philippians 1:6 tells us, “He who has begun a good work in you will COMPLETE it.” So, even when that process is uncomfortable, we can be confident that, according to Romans 2:4, it’s the goodness of God that leads us across the threshold of repentance so we can grow into the shoes he intends us to fill. Each of us can count on the faithfulness of Jesus to escort us, by whatever means are required, to the climax of our spiritual 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘤.
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    4 分
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