Promise Keeper

Has anyone ever failed to keep a promise to you, or let you down in some way? Have you ever been the one to let someone else down? It’s an empty and disheartening feeling, either way, isn’t it? In the graceless age we live in, with all of its formal agreements and contracts, we may have lost the inherent security of being people of our word. This is not an integrity issue of credibility only, but dependability.

In the week prior to the cross, and upon the brink of making the atoning sacrifice for all mankind, Jesus engaged his disciples in a series of discussions targeted at reassuring them that He could be depended upon to keep His word. They must have needed reassurance; they must have been struggling with the feeling of abandonment and disappointment.

One such discussion, recorded in Luke 22, is such a discussion, although not as apparent as many of the others. Jesus begins the dialogue, in verse 8, sending Peter and John to go and make preparations for a place to partake of the Passover feast.

Jesus said, “Go and prepare the Passover for us.”

“Where do you want us to prepare it?” they said to Him.

He said, “When you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you; follow him into the house which he enters, and say to the householder, the Teacher asks, where is the guest room, where I can eat the Passover with my disciples. He will show you a large furnished room upstairs. Prepare the Passover there.”

Jesus, in a small way, is making a promise to Peter and John directly, but to all who are in earshot of his voice. He is telling them what will happen in the future, and He is telling them they can depend on Him. His words must have seen strange, even with all the other signs the disciples had witnessed over the last three years. If the promise did not materialize, Jesus’ credibility among His disciples would have been seriously damaged. If events did take place as Jesus told them it would, it would be a source of comfort, and security, to know that Jesus keeps His word.

For a moment, look at this story with different eyes. Not from the perspective of Jesus, Peter and John, or the other disciples. Look at it through the eyes of a man with a pitcher of water. It appears he doesn’t even know Jesus is working through him and around him. With all the activities of the day, the schedule he has to keep, the business he must conduct, and the people with whom he must engage, it’s a wonder he could get himself, and his family prepared for the Passover feast. All we know, is that with all this man, with a pitcher of water, had to do, he would end up in a certain spot, at a certain time, carrying a pitcher of water, and on the way to someone’s house. He may never have known that it was Peter and John who were following him, or who it was that might have sent them.

Verse 13 sums up the story, not written by an eyewitness, but told to Luke by an eyewitness (Luke 1:2). The verse says, “They (Peter and John) went and found everything as the Lord had told them, and prepared the Passover.”

The story must have been a source of encouragement, security, and hope. It survives until this day, where it still offers the same possibilities.

When they found “everything as the Lord had told them”, it must have struck their senses. Probably, it struck them in such a way, that later, when Jesus said “I go and prepare a place for you”, or “I will come again and receive you unto myself”, or “I am with you always, even to the end of the age”, they were hearing promises from a credible, and dependable source.

Jesus made many promises. Many were made to us. Will He let us down? Can we be secure in His promises? Do we live in expectation of the fulfillment of those promises?

One day, in heaven, and every day until then, we will find everything as the Lord has told us. Jesus is a promise keeper.

In the beginning was the Word

During some recent study and research, I began looking more intently at one of my favorite passages from the gospel of John.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 There was true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14, NASB)

There are several elements, or phrases, that I want to focus on in this article.

First, let’s look at verse 1. John establishes the fact of an eternal being that was uniquely different than God, yet was God. Alfred Marshall’s interlinear translation of this passage, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.” Ralph Earle’s work, Word Meanings in the New Testament, from which much of the content below is obtained, begins John’s gospel with a focus on the Greek word “logos”. He states that the word “logos” is found 330 times in the New Testament, and is translated 25 different ways, in the KJV, including 218 times as “word”, with a small w, and 50 times as “saying”.

But, in Ephesus, 600 years before John penned his gospel from there, Heraclitus used the term “logos” for “the rational principle, power, or being which speaks to men both from without and from within”. Plato used it for the “divine force creating the world”, and Aristotle used it for “insight”. Earle says, “in general, the Greeks thought of “logos” as reason, or thought, whereas the Jewish emphasis was on “logos” as word.” Philo, a Jew who lived in Alexandria at the time of Jesus, “sought to combine” the ideas of thought and speech in “logos”. He used the term over 1300 times in his writings. But with Philo, as Earle states, “the Logos is often personified but never truly personalized”.

John, through divine inspiration, goes beyond Philo, and those who came before him. John presents Jesus as the eternal Logos, “the true concept of God and also the Word, expressing that concept fully in His incarnation in verse 14”. Of all the New Testament writers, only John, and only on three occasions, applies “logos” to Jesus (John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; and Revelation 19:13)

Notice the imperfect tense “en” in verses 1 and 2. This is the Greek word for “was”, but it implies continuous existence. In fact, “in the beginning” implies eternal existence. Also, note the word “pros”, our word “with”, which notes “close proximity”. The Logos was “face to face” with God, eternally and continuously.

At the end of verse 1, our versions read, “and the Word was God”. The Greek actually states “God was the Word”. Either rendering is correct, boldly acknowledging the deity of the Word, identified in verse 14 as Jesus.

I would draw your attention to verse 5, to the phrase “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” The Greek word is “katalambano”, for which two meanings are prominent in the New Testament. Basically, it means “to take hold of”, but is used in the mental sense, “comprehend”, or in the physical sense “seize hold of”. The KJV translates katalambano as “comprehend”, and the NIV translates it “understood” but margin notes state “the darkness has not overcome”.

The context (verses 9 through 11) requires, to me, the mental aspect of the word. Jesus is the Light and the world is darkness. And the darkness doesn’t grasp, or understand, the Light.

Prior, in verses 1 and 2, we looked at “was” (en) and its continuous, eternal existence. Now look, in verses 3 and 6, at “came into being”, ginomai in the Greek. Ginomai is translated, in verses 3 and 6 in the KJV, as “was” also. Yet, this time, “was” is different. In verses 1 and 2, the Logos eternally and continuously existed and exists. “All things that were made”, the creation, came into being. This is the reason for the differences in the KJV and NASB translations. Then, most interestingly, in verse 14, in reference to Jesus, “the Word became flesh”. Again, this is not “en”, but “ginomai”. The Logos always existed, but He became flesh at His incarnation.

Finally, in verse 14, the word for “dwelt” is similar in the Greek, “skenoo”, to our words “tabernacled” or “tented”. The NIV captures the thought of tenting, with its translation, “lived for a while among us”. The Logos became flesh and temporarily lived among us. He lived with us for a short while, and brought Light to darkness. Those of us who receive Him, He has given to us the right to become children of God. He has given us the ability to see our way in darkness.

Jesus said, in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Jesus also said he came to give sight to the blind (Matthew 11:5). Do you think he was speaking of physical sight or blindness?

Stand Firm

I don't know if anyone comes here anymore considering none of us has posted in...well, it's been awhile. Because of that fact, this post is mainly for Scott, but if you read this, take a second to leave me a comment. In the Roman army, one of the main tactics used was a formation called a phalanx. In this formation, there would be a block of men 10x10 (100 men) that would all hold their shield in front of them, with the outside border all facing to the outside, so as to make a walking tank. A term they were taught (that is, those in the phalanx) was "stand firm". They were taught that if one of the front men fell, they must move into their place and stand firm. You'll notice often in Paul's writings that he will use many military terms. Well, this is one of them. He says in Philippians 1:27, "...standing firm in one spirit..." Paul makes reference to the Roman phalanx because the church at Philippi was predominantly Roman war veterans. He makes sure they know, and that we know, that a Christians battle is one where those on whom you rely may fall, but you must always stand firm.