The past few days have been difficult wrestling with the idea of starting this blog. I have been going through all sorts of thoughts like how I'm not ready, or that I'm going to say something that misleads people trying to discover their faith in Jesus, or insert one of the countless other negative thoughts here.
But after a chat with people I trust and prayer, I decided to take a step in faith and just do it.

So I set a time to read a chapter of the bible with my brother and discuss it with him and take notes from that, so we read John 1 together. And this is the thoughts we have on John 1 as we read through it.

The Stairway

[John 1:51 NLT] Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”

What we were drawn to first and found interesting was the phrase Stairway between heaven and earth. Given that Jesus uses Son of Man as a title for himself, we believe it's talking about how Jesus himself is that stairway between heaven and earth. And as we will later read in the bible, he will be the only way we humans can get to heaven.

On top of that, our bibles had an interesting reference to Genesis, where it references a staircase resting on earth with angels of God ascending and descending on it.

[Genesis 28:12 NIV] He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

What do you think about Jesus being the stairway to heaven?

Jesus Knows Things

[John 1:45 NIV] Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
[46] “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
[47] As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
[48] “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”
[49] Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”
[50] Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”

This passage was a verse before what we just spoke about but it stood out to us because for Nathanael to have reacted the way he did [John 1:49], there must have been something that Jesus wouldn't have been able to know without being god himself. This reminds me of a story in the bible where Jesus is talking to a woman at the well, and he is implying things about her that is impossible for him to have known as the two have never met before [John 4:4-26].

How would you react if you didn't know someone, but meeting them for the first time showed they know things about you they shouldn't know? What do you think was going through Nathaniel's mind at the time this happened to him? (I will probably ask the same question again when we read John 4 😄)

God Declared Jesus Is His Son

[John 1:29 NIV] The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
[30] This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’
[31] I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
[32] Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
[33] And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
[34] I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

This is god himself saying to John the Baptist that this man is his son, and as such because of the sign he saw, he began to testify about Jesus. In the gospel of Matthew, it is recorded that God himself said that this was his son

[Matthew 3:16 NIV] As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
[17] And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Put yourself in the sandals of John the Baptist, what do you think he was feeling at the time he saw the Dove resting on Jesus's head? How do you think people around him who heard that voice from heaven felt? If you were there, what would you think or feel about this?

What do you dear reader think of this chapter in the bible? What draws your interest, raises questions, or speaks to you? Leave a comment below with your thoughts as you read the bible. God Bless you 😄