This second section of chapter 1 continues looking at the fundamentally divine nature of Jesus the Messiah.
Many small items in scripture add up to a magnificent interlocking edifice of evidence to the supernatural, long-timespan, matrix of paths to the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
Pastor Barry told us the reason that John included what he did (and left out much). “What he’s given us is the key things, the things that the Holy Spirit had instructed him and laid upon his heart to communicate that we would have this record.
And he says, "but these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name.
That is an incredible verse.
It's telling us that John's written this stuff, that everything contained here is enough for us to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah: God manifest in the flesh.
He's the Son of God.
It speaks of the Trinity.
... and that believing - and that's all we have to do, just simply believe in Jesus - we will have life, eternal life through his name.
And this is why John is writing this Gospel.
There is a section on the dating of the writing of the book (much earlier than some scholars suggest).
A section on the Bible stating that Jesus IS God (and many ramifications of that).
In a section dealing with an old questoin, Pastor Barry reiterated that no man has seen God as he truly is.
"For now God has chosen to reveal himself through physical manifestations, as we've noted already in Scripture, and Jesus is the ultimate and final physical manifestation of God.
In the Old Testament, all those other examples we've quoted or spoken of, they are what some people refer to as a Christophany: it's an Old Testament appearance of Jesus.
There's the second person of the Trinity that appears in a human form, that speaks to people, wrestles with Jacob, speaks to the parents of Samson, and so on, but nobody has seen God the Father, and that's why Jesus says he's come, to reveal him.
There is a substantial treatment of “The Transfiguration” event (Jesus taking Peter & James & John up the mountain and meeting Moses and Elijah). The significance of “two men” and the question of where that mountain is was answered by sifting through the evidence (the contrasting nature of Mount Nebo and Mount Hermon was also dealt with).
Several instances of “Witnesses” were examined (from Deuteronomy Ch9v15 to Revelation Ch 11v3-6) and the importance of the concept related to this chapter.
John the Baptist gets a fairly extensive treatment: he came to prepare the way for The Lord (as prophesied 700 years earlier by Isaiah).
The nature of our own, personal coming to faith was discussed and elaborated (variety of routes and experiences, but all with one common feature).
Pastor Barry also dropped in a tantalising little hint of exciting things to come: “Some of the things, personally, I’ve been studying at the moment, are just blowing my mind. At some point, I’m going to share with you some of the things that the Lord has been showing me from his word, about his creation. I am enjoying studying the scripture at the moment in a way that I’ve not done for many, many years. There’s just so many wonderful things.”
In conclusion Pastor Barry gave us a quotation from Adam Clarke (an expansion-cum-commentary on verse 50) and explained that this shows “what God wants to do with each one of you: Reveal more of himself to you, so you are in absolutely no doubt whatsoever who Jesus Christ is. He is God manifest in the flesh. He has come to light the way back to the Father that we can have this walk that God intended from the beginning that we would walk in.
