Jesus, the one “From Above”

The Birth Story

• Why no story of Jesus’ birth in John?
  • There is in Matthew and Luke
  • Mark is a much shorter book, so it is not surprising that some parts get missed out
  • But why not John?
• John was written much later and assumes you have read the other gospels
  • For this reason, John has the luxury of being able to take time to talk about the meaning of events, not just the bare events.
• Actually, there IS the story of Jesus’ birth in John
  • Do you know where?
  • Right at the beginning! John 1:1-18

1. Jesus came “from above”

• Two kinds of religion:
  • those that try and reach up to God
  • the one that depends on God reaching down to us
• We cannot reach up and find him, he has found us
• This is one of the central themes in the Gospel of John
  • I spent several hours going through the book and found over 100 verses that have this theme:
  • Quick look: the “from above” theme in John
• I am going to try and very simply explain to you this theme in John

2. We must be born “from above”

• John doesn’t waste any time in telling us this
  • It is there in 1:12,13 John 1:1-18
  • But it is right at the forefront of John 3, the visit from Nicodemus

3. Jesus constantly depended on power “from above”

• The next thing that John wants to show us is that Jesus, although he was God
  • didn’t rely on his divine strength
  • but on the power that was supplied to him moment by moment “from above”
• Although he could have done miracles in his own strength
  • That would have defeated the purpose of him living as a human
  • demonstrating to us how a human could and should live
  • and fulfilling the requirement as our saviour
• Jesus didn’t only come from God, but he lived moment by moment depending on power from above
  • It is there in John 4:34; 5:30,36; 6:38 John 4:34; 5:30,36; 6:38

4. We need to depend on Jesus, just as Jesus did on the Father

• One of the reasons is to demonstrate to us a life of dependence
  • Jesus uses the image of bread from heaven, taken from the time in the wilderness John 6:41-51, 57

5. The way this happens is through the Spirit

• Jesus says in exactly the same way that the Father sent him, he is sending us
  • and we are empowered through the same Spirit: John 15:26; 17:18-23
  • The Spirit is the way Jesus lives in us
• Live the way Jesus intended us to, moment by moment depending on him through the Spirit