Blog Category: Devotional (4 posts)

Luke J. Wilson | 14th February 2023 | Coffee With Jesus

Brief Thoughts From Daily Devotions I’m sure we’re all familiar with John 1, especially the first few verses: John 1:1–2In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Sometimes I think we can become so familiar with a Biblical text that we can forget or gloss over the rest of it, or what comes after and around it. Similar to the other famous John verse, John 3:16. After reading all of John 1 today, I was struck again with just how much theology John packs into such a short space in the opening paragraphs (vv.1–18)! There is often a lot of debate around the translation of the first verse amongst certain heretical groups who try to diminish or alter the view of Jesus’ divinity or pre-existence etc. but I think the familiarity with the beginning three verses has caused us to miss that the next sixteen verses all point very strongly to the true nature of Jesus, who he is, and that he is also God. John 1:10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. Verse three identifies the “Word” with creator status as “without him nothing was made”. John expands on this more, and then in verse 10 he states that this Word figure was coming into the world which he had also made, and then makes it really clear in verse 14 and 15: John 1:14–15The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ John plainly says that this “Word became flesh” (the incarnation of Jesus) and then clearly points to the pre-existence of Jesus here by saying “he was before me”. This isn’t an issue of age either, as John was actually six months older than Jesus, phy...

Luke J. Wilson | 10th February 2023 | Coffee With Jesus

Brief thoughts from daily devotions The road to Emmaus. A familiar story from the Gospel to many, though today as I read it, I noticed some things which I probably glossed over in previous times. At the start of this chapter we see that some of the women who followed Jesus had gone to the tomb with spices to prepare the body of Jesus, and yet were met with a few surprises: an open, empty tomb and some angels! They ran back to the group of apostles and other disciples to tell the exciting news, and what was their response? “[T]hese words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” (v.11). They thought it was nonsense! Probably not the reaction they expected. We then come to the two men on the road to Emmaus. Something which I hadn’t really picked up on before is that they were also from the group whom the women had earlier reported to, but then for some reason they decided to leave and walk seven miles to Emmaus. After Jesus met them on the road and they explained why they were sad, they even commented, “besides it is the third day” (v.21) as though they understood or remembered Jesus’ words and expected something to happen still, despite hearing of the empty tomb and thinking it an “idle tale”, and acknowledging the women said he was alive (v.22–24). Jesus, who has disguised himself from them (v.16), then explains everything from Moses and all the prophets to them about the Messiah. How I often wish this was recorded in full detail here, rather than just as a passing detail! I’d love to read how Jesus himself interprets and exegetes the Scriptures in full. They later have a meal together and it’s only when Jesus breaks the bread that they recognise him before he vanishes from their sight (v.31). My first thoughts when reading this were how it almost is a pointer towards the later understanding of the Eucharist in that we see Jesus in the bread and receive him there. Even in verse 35, Luke says it in such a Eucharistic way ...

Luke J. Wilson | 08th February 2023 | Coffee With Jesus

Brief Thoughts From Daily Devotions I’m going to start a new infrequent sub-series called “Coffee with Jesus”, which will be short blogs based on whatever I’m currently reading in the Bible during my morning devotions (as I drink my coffee, hence the name). They won’t necessarily be in any specific order, unless something particularly strikes me each day as I’m reading through a book of the Bible. Today’s observation comes from Luke 22–23 concerning the Last Supper and the crucifixion of Jesus. Reading Luke 22, something stood out to me that I hadn’t considered before: at the Passover meal, Jesus says he won’t drink wine again until the Kingdom comes. Luke 22:17–18Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. On the cross, Jesus is offered bitter wine and refuses at first, but then moments before his death, he says “I thirst” and drinks the wine. This is recorded in more detail in Matthew and John: Matthew 27:48At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. John 19:29–30A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Even the use of hyssop here in John’s account points to something often overlooked but extremely significant to the Jewish people as it points back to the very first Passover. Moses commanded the people to cover their doorposts in the lamb’s blood using bunches of hyssop (Exodus 12:22), and now during the final Passover sacrifice, the Lamb of God is offered a drink from a hyssop branch. To continue with the Kingdom theme, from Luke 23, one of the criminals crucified alongside Jesus asks to be remembe...

Luke J. Wilson | 11th November 2019 | General Articles

The other week we had a series of power cuts in our town. It doesn’t happen very often here where I am, but there was particularly bad weather recently which damaged some cables; but sitting in the dark winter evening, my phone low on battery power, it made me realise just how much we rely on electricity for nearly everything these days. We don’t even have a gas supply so we were completely cut off from doing anything! Now it might sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget how dependent we are on modern conveniences until it’s suddenly taken away and you’re sat in the cold surrounded by tiny little tea-light candles. The following Sunday, the sermon at church touched on the fear of God, which got me thinking about how that concept is still kind of strange to me—God is love, He’s our Father, we’re His children… but then we are to also fear Him? What does this have to do with electricity and power cuts, I hear you say—I’ll come to that in a moment. I’ve often been taught that the word “fear” used in this context actually means “respect”, so I decided to look up the Greek and Hebrew words that are used when we see the words “fear God” in the Bible. It wasn’t exactly what I expected to find. 2 Corinthians 5:11 is where I began, as that was the verse quoted in the sermon. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences. I thought I may see a Greek word with a semantic range which includes “respect” or “honour” maybe, but what I found was the word φόβος (phobos) which literally means “alarm or fright; be afraid, fear, terror”. It’s also where we get our English word “phobia” from! So I went forward a couple of chapters to this verse: 2 Corinthians 7:1Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. But aga...