The Gospel of John, The Gospel of Newness

[HKHaugan]

The Gospel of John, the Gospel of Newness

 “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him (Lam.3:22-23).”

 That passage is a great introduction to the Gospel of John which is a Gospel of newness.  Last time we stuck a pin in the balloon of novelty.  Novelty is fake newness, a balloon that needs puncturing.  Newness is a whole new experience, a spiritual experience that never ends.  Before we get into John’s Gospel we need to look at the Lamentations passage.  In a nutshell it is saying, ‘Because God loves us He’s patient with us.  In Him, newness and faith go together.  So, putting the Lord first will always bring a new experience.’  God is the God of newness.  Faith in Him leads us into never ending new experiences.  Novelty takes us backward, always having to have something new when the last ‘new’ thing we got no longer satisfies.  Newness takes us forward.  Real newness is spiritual, relational and looking forward to what the living Lord is going to do in our every next moment. 

 A relationship with Jesus is always a happening.  The Holy Spirit is the heartbeat of Jesus working in us through faith.  “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen (Heb.11:1).”  Newness is the experience of faith.  It’s the result of looking forward and trusting Jesus for what happens in every next moment.  Newness is the experience we have when what happens is the unexpected, something only He could have done.  Newness is the experience of realizing that every next moment is a new moment ready to be filled with His Spirit doing what the Lord Jesus wants for us personally.  Newness is the surprising blessings we receive, the fruit of believing and trusting in His presence.  Newness is what He does when we feel alone, lost and out of sorts even when we have been believers for a long time.  We may give up but He never gives up on us.  He is always bringing some new experience of life, His life, to us.

 That’s precisely what we see, newness, a primary theme in the Gospel of John.  Everything in it is the presentation of the real new.  Just go from 1:1-4:54 and newness jumps out at you.  In Jesus, something new happened.  Actually, newness is the theme of the whole Gospel not only in John but in the '-New-' Testament as well.  It is a change in perspective.  There has been a shift, a replacement of the old with the new, a new revelation from the physical to the spiritual, from Law to heart, from institution to relationship, from 12 tribes (bloodline) to 12 disciples (heartline), from an ethnic family to a spiritual family, from ‘fitting in’ to survive to being a unique person through Jesus.  The point is that newness is every believer’s potential experience every day.  How do we place ourselves in its reality?  It's all in the Spirit:

1. a new word (1:1)

2. a new humanity (1:14)

3. a new truth (1:14)

4. a new atmosphere, grace (1:14)

5. a new witness (1:23)

6. a new baptism (1:33)

7. a new discipleship (1:35-50)

8. seven new signs showing Jesus as Messiah,

   a. changing water into wine (2:1-11)

   b. healing of an official’s son (2:43-54)

   c. healing of invalid at Bethesda pool (5:1-15)

   d. feeding of the 5000 (6:1-15)

   e. walking on water (6:16-21)

   f. healing of a blind man (9:1-34)

   g. raising of Lazarus (11:1-44)

9. a new temple (2:14-19)

10. a new birth and life (3:1-21)

11. a new well of water (4:7-15)

12. a new worship (4:16-26)

13. a new dimension, spiritual (4:24)

14. a new inclusion (4:39, 46-47) … and these are only the first four chapters!

 What we will find in the rest of the Gospel is that all the teachings are the foundation to be able to see what is and what is not new and what may be masquerading as new.  A good example is the expression “the new normal.”  Say what?  How can a norm be new if it is the norm?  What’s normal is the culture that changes its tunes wherever the wind blows.  What the world defines as 'new' is usually old.  You might quote “There is nothing new under the sun.”  Eccl.1:9. True, but who and what is above and over the sun is revealing something new for each one of us each day.  The One who has authority over Creation, including the sun, is constantly providing a new opportunity, a new experience, a new possibility, a new challenge---all looking forward.

 Thus, these passages reveal for every disciple in every next moment a newness in the way to think (believe-mind), newness in the way to trust (make decisions-heart) and newness in the way to have faith (motivated to act-spirit).  “New every morning, new every morning, great is Thy Faithfulness O Lord.”

 Here’s some questions to ponder as you consider the gift of drinking in the newness the Lord provides every next moment.

 What new things have happened to you in your life since Jesus began to make sense to you?

Are there other new ideas popping into your head as you read His Word?

How can we apply the idea of spiritual newness in a physical world?

Are we looking forward, being expectant, anticipating the Spirit's prompting our next move?

Do you ever look back to your youth and wish you could return to the comfort and protection of family and friends?

Do you ever wish you could go back to the first days of your conversion or the first of anything that was part of your growing up?

Vacation places that were so wonderful, unexpected experiences you wish you could repeat?

Does age and health and your eyes open to a world of hurt, pain, sorrow, crime and death surround you and cause the desire to retreat from it all?

Do you ever feel alone, no one seeming to understand you or at best they misread you?

Do you ever ask, why me?  What have I done that I should have this happen or that person hate me or why I think others desert me or make bad decisions that I would never have done? 

Do you feel you are being treated unjustly by circumstance, a boss, a friend or someone in the Body of Christ?

Do you ever feel inadequate, not having the right answers or afraid you might not have an answer when a question is asked?

Do you ever feel reluctant, hesitant, ‘it’s best to be quiet and size up the situation before I speak,’ that feeling you get when you are among others you don’t know?  Wouldn’t you just like to be yourself?

 These are questions, the answers to which, rest in the willingness to experience the Lord’s living answers that will be new to your individual situation.  Jesus is the Lord who brings something new into our lives all the time.  “His compassions are new every morning.”