We are thrilled to begin a new sermon series this week called “Our Beloved Invites.” Each Sunday of this series, we’ll explore an invitation that Jesus extends in the Gospel of John, looking at both what it meant in the context of the original narrative and what it might mean in our lives today.
Think for a moment about the truth that the God of the universe invites us…truly consider this wild concept!
We can likely imagine a God who demands things.
We can perhaps picture a God who controls things like a cosmic chessboard.
We can often envision a God who is distant from and disinterested in the things of our lives.
But a God who invites us into things? And not just little things, but significant things like sharing what we most deeply desire? Like living life to the fullest, not apart from God, but with God in every part of it? A life where our breath becomes a prayer:
“I in You.
You in me.
We in You—together.”
This can be very different than the God we thought we knew. And the concept of a God who invites would have been utterly radical for the original hearers of John’s Gospel.
As a Jew writing to both Jewish and Gentiles living in a Greco-Roman culture, John is a master at what we would call “code-switching.” His writing helped both Jews and Gentiles understand how Jesus builds on what they already understand and is also infinitely bigger, better, and more beautiful than they could ever imagine.
Our beloved BEMA podcast co-host Marty Solomon puts it like this: “John loves to simultaneously speak to and subvert the Greco-Roman and Jewish worldview.” We see the magnificent way John does this from the very first verses of the very first chapter of the Gospel, which call back to Genesis 1 and play on the Greco-Roman concept of the Logos to show that Jesus is both the incarnate Word of God and the Logos. This literary brilliance lays a deep theological foundation for a Gospel full of God’s redemption and new creation in and through Jesus the Christ.
By highlighting the many invitations Jesus offers throughout this Gospel, John shows both Jewish and Gentile listeners that the God who chose to become flesh in Jesus of Nazareth is radically different from anything they thought they knew. Each of these invitations ultimately leads to something greater: an encounter with God Himself. And the question we will hold together throughout this series is:
How are we choosing to respond to our Beloved’s invitation?
The Teaching Team