FHU Monday Lectures

Monday update –

Today the first lecture we made it to was in the chapel (It’s hard to make the earlier lectures with two kids that are under the age of four). David Sargent spoke on “Believe John” form John 5:33. The theme this year is all on the Gospel of John.

David spoke about who John the Baptist was not. It seemed to me his main point was that John was trying to point away from himself and to Jesus as the Christ. Even though his assigned text was John 5:33 he preached out of John 1:19ff. He talked about how John said he was not the Christ, or Elijah, neither was he the Prophet. He said that they were looking for Elijah based upon Malachi 4:5. He then says that John the Baptist was saying this was not him. What’s interested to me is that he did not attempt to rectify the apparent contradiction with Matthew 11:14, “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.”

It was a shame that John 20:30-31 was not pointed to as the purpose behind John’s gospel – “that you may believe that Jesus the Christ the Son of God.” It is faith in Jesus as the Christ that John is striving to develop from start to finish in his Gospel. In John 1:34 John the Baptist says, “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” John the Baptist is a witness to who is seeking to instill belief in the reader that Jesus is the Son of God who can give them life! There were many exegetical ties that are really exciting all through the John the Baptist sections in the Gospel of John, and in my opinion these were neglected.

There was a lengthy quote from William Barclay’s commentary about John the Baptist being the one to introduce Jesus as the Bridegroom. It rubbed me the wrong way and maybe unnecessarily. It helps to understand that I don’t place commentaries on the altars that most do and read them infrequently let alone do I quote them in a sermon. From an illustration point of view it fits its purpose – I guess.

The thrust of the lesson was quite accurate – that Jesus is the Christ. The delivery lacked passion. The content seemed lacking. The nonuse of the wonderful exegetical ties with the John the Baptist passages and the rest of John was a crime. Of course… it’s my opinion.

Caleb

UPDATE:
I just got done listening to Stan Michell preach on "Practicing Love in a Multi-ethnic Society" from John 4:7-14. His accent was great (why is it that one someone preaches with an accent they automatically receive 2 more style points?). He talked about doing mission work in Zimbabwe and did a good job of relating the biblical subject to the world we live in.

There is a lot I could say but I will just address one of them. His last point was that the blood of Christ is the only solution to racial prejudices. He said the answer is not the government, social programs, the help section of book stores, or government school education – it’s the cross that eliminates all ungodly prejudices and allows all men to see each other as equals. Great message.

UPDATE:
Doc Woods (Clyde M. Woods) just spoke on John 1:1 and the Watchtower Societies erroneous translation which denies the deity of Christ. The first part of the lecture was entirely too complex for anyone who has not had at least two years of Greek. This could have been aided with some PowerPoint slides illustration what a predicate nominative was in the Greek and how it functioned. Most people were probably lost. Then he transitioned into a much broader discussion of JW’s and their way of translating. He showed, by quoting one of their translators, that they had no business translating the Greek. He was a bit “unsmooth” in his presentation which somewhat surprised me.