http://www.tualatinfoursquare.org/news/blog_main.cfm To blog or not to blog?
Now's the right time to begin an open dialog about our new study from John. My intent is to preview some of the material that we'll be covering in the coming week. But, more importantly, to hear your thoughts, even field some of your questions. So, join in the discussion. Your insights are welcome.

Pastor Bill en-us http://www.tualatinfoursquare.org/news/blog_details.cfm?blog_id=4 The Spirit of truth will not speak on His own authority.

That’s a curious statement ...

Good thing I didn’t make it up - it’s actually a quote from Jesus:

“… when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority ...” John 16:13

Q. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak on his own authority, who’s authority does he speak from?

“… when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak” John 16:13

That’s interesting.

Q. Who’s he listening to to get what he’s supposed to say?

“… He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:14b

And just in case the disciples didn’t get it the first time, he repeats it:

“All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said He will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” John 16:15

I seem to remember Jesus making similar statements about himself:

“I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.” John 12:49

“The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me …” John 14:10

We’ve come to believe this about Jesus, but hearing it about the Holy Spirit - that’s different.

Q. Your thoughts on what’s going on here? Join the discussion, enter your comment below.

Pastor Bill
Gospel Of John Bill Jastram Feb 26, 2010, 6:24:38 PM http://www.tualatinfoursquare.org/news/blog_details.cfm?blog_id=1 To begin this blog about Jesus' Final Conversation, I have to admit there's a concept I have yet to get my head around. It has to do with the interpretation of "mone" as "mansions" in John 14:2:

"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

When considering something as non-descript as "Heaven" we likely lean heavily on our personal mental models. "Mansion" certainly suggests some loaded imagery.

As I mentioned, "mone" is the greek root of "mansions" - pronounced "mon-ay".

What's curious about this is that various forms of "mone" appears in this conversation, but none of them are translated "mansions" - always as "abode" or "abiding":

"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever" John 14:16

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." John 15:4

"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15:6

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love." John 15:9

"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." John 15:10

"... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23

This last one is perhaps the most intriguing because of it's direct tie to our original reference:

"In my Father's house are many mansions (mone): if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

"... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home (mone) with him." John 14:23

The Apostle John is big on "mone", here's a parallel section of One John showing the greek root:

"Let that therefore abide (mone) in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain (mone) in you, you also shall continue (mone) in the Son, and in the Father." 1. John 2:24

Candidly, I'd say the King James interpreters got a bit 'cultural' when they interpreted "mone" as "mansions" - sort of a culturally relevant application of the Lord/Manor concept, which would have set well with their early 17th century readers.

Q. So what's your take on John 14:2?

Click "comments" and join the conversation. Gospel Of John Bill Jastram Feb 11, 2010, 8:27:59 PM http://www.tualatinfoursquare.org/news/blog_details.cfm?blog_id=3 I recently noticed something in John 14 that, once I started pulling on it, got larger and took on more meaning - although I’m still not completely sure what it all means.

The verse that first got my attention was John 14:18-20:

John 14:18–20

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, also you will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

The little phrase that got my attention was: “In that day ...”

The implication, of course, is that “that day” will be different than any day that preceded it. Because “in that day you will know …” They were about to know something that they could not have known - at least as clearly - prior to “that day” taking place.

We get a hint of what this ‘something’ is in the preceding sentence:

“Because I live, also you will live.”

The disciples were certainly living when Jesus was telling them this - at least their hearts were beating, and they were having a conversation with him. So Jesus must have been referring to being ‘alive’ in some other way.

And then I noticed that this new ‘alive’ would initiate them into something of paramount importance:

“In that day … you will know … that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

That’s pretty important ...

It’s no small thing that this passage appears right after Jesus promised the Holy Spirit:

John 14:15–17

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

He will be “in you”.

And with him in us we will, or at least should, begin to unravel the rest of the equation:

“that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

Q Why is all this important? Because this is how it’s all going to work - from the inside out.

Consider these similar references within this same conversation:

John 16:23

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

John 16:26–28

“In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

Q. What’s your take? Click the “here” link and join the conversation.
Gospel Of John Bill Jastram Feb 11, 2010, 8:25:51 PM http://www.tualatinfoursquare.org/news/blog_details.cfm?blog_id=2 From what we can glean from this final, pre-cross, discussion with Jesus the disciples were struggling to get the ‘inside’ connection:

Philip: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Jesus: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?”

Something essential had escaped their notice:

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father …”

All this is tied to something ‘inside’ Jesus, and that something ‘inside’ Jesus was the Father:

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?”

In other words, what’s ‘in me’ is the source of the evidence coming out of me:

“The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who abides (meno) in Me does the works.”

Then, Jesus goes on to make a startling distinction:

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else …”

His decisive “or else” distinguishes between two types of believers:

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me because of the works themselves.”

This is not the first time Jesus has made this distinction. He previously made to the Jews:

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” John 10:37,38

And it’s this first category of people - those who believe in the essential ‘inside’ connection - who are made this amazing promise:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, (as opposed to simply what I do) the works that I do he will do also …”

With the added bonus of:

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

So, asking and acting accurately is totally tied to the ‘inside’ connection:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide (meno) with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells (meno) with you and will be in you.”

Q. What do you make of Jesus’ two types of believers?

Click “comments” and join the conversation.

Pastor Bill

Gospel Of John Bill Jastram Feb 11, 2010, 7:49:26 PM