Lighthouse Podcast

How does the Father draw people to Jesus? How did those whom Jesus taught, actually understand God’s drawing them into a covenant relationship? As it was written in Isaiah and Jeremiah, each shall be taught. But by whom? Jesus attempts to help everyone understand and take confidence in God’s activity through Jesus, to bring about the new covenant reality.

Could you compose a book about your great grandparents? How challenging would that be? Would you have plenty of resources? Would others who knew or know your great grandparents disagree with how you portray them? Now, imagine Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as they compose their books about Jesus at least a generation after Jesus ascended into the clouds. Jesus lived and died and lives again. Yet, Jesus lived in died in a radically different world than you and I are likely used to. What did life look like then and why does it matter for us to understand that now? N.T. Wright compels readers to ask good questions before attempting to provide good answers.

The Passover and perhaps Exodus theme is found in John 6. We pause to relocate previous themes floating down the river in John’s Gospel. John seems to push several boats down this river which approaches the cross of Jesus. We are seeing Jesus, not as someone who merely had a role in Israel’s story, but as God who is making Himself known through Israel’s story and will ultimately make Himself known as King in a very unexpected way. Israel’s feasts and institutions provided a foreshadowing of Jesus’ identity and role. How do we accurately identify the Jesus of the Bible from the versions of Jesus we’ve created since Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection? John wants to help us with that question.

Choose four people to accurately describe you. Who would they be? Now, fast forward two millennia and let’s see if there are any myths about you or if any truth about you in the context of your life remains. In this episode, N.T. Wright chooses two postures which seem to categorize believers. Yet, do these postures mischaracterize the Jesus we find in the four Gospels?

We review four Jewish institutions in chapters 2 through 4 in John’s Gospel. Each of the segments correlates to Jesus’ effort to communicate God to this world. He helps us understand who created us, why we were created and which direction we’re all supposed to be headed in. John gives us some clarity about what this heavenly visit from Jesus looks like and how to interpret it.

The vessel, Andrea Gail, was caught out in the Atlantic 500 miles off of the coast in October of 1991 when a perfect storm surrounded them. Wright imagines believers to be in a similar predicament when trying to communicate the Jesus of the Gospels. There are many storms which distort genuine communication of the truth. Western culture can be so powerful as to kill anyone ‘out to sea.’ In this episode we briefly discuss the nature of the challenge for the truth to endure in the midst of threatening storms, or cultural reactions to Jesus that drown out the truth.

In this episode we dig a little deeper into the idea of how exactly God creates faith in someone. Faith has to be in Jesus, and as Jesus says, “They shall all be taught of God.” We all have different versions in our mind as to what God is like. We allow Jesus to teach us what God is like. John helps us connect important dots in Jesus’ story, as we continue in chapter 6.

Jesus’ World, Jesus’ God, Jesus in Charge? These three things we examine from chapter 2. To better understand Jesus we need to know how he thought, how people in his era thought, what was believed, taught, and practiced. People then and now have different understandings of God. Why was Jesus’ God different? Jesus’ behavior was based on who he believed Himself to be, King, the one who’s ultimately in charge, even over Caesar!

Like the crowd and the disciples, we see the truth we want to see. Sometimes we’re not completely wrong, either, but we’re wrong enough to make inaccurate decisions in life and especially with our faith in God. How do we learn the difference between our truth and God’s? Learning to hear Jesus’ voice is what Jesus said his followers, sheep, and servants, will do. This is not a knee jerk response but a carefully developed habit, which becomes a lifestyle. We continually refresh our perspective of Jesus and the kingdom of God.

The context of the announcement of the kingdom of God is what is explored. We talk about the origin of the Emperor Cult and the strategy of Roman Imperialism, and provide the setting for Mark’s euangelion, his good news or Gospel about Jesus Christ, Son of God.