Red-Letter Christian

Red-Letter Christians


"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:4-5

"If someone is nearly blind, you write HUGE SCRAWLING LETTERS! Is someone is nearly deaf, you SHOUT LOUDLY! If someone is spiritually unaware, you speak in DARK SAYINGS and PARABLES! Jesus did this."

Some Bibles have the words of Jesus printed in red. What did Jesus say. The Holy Spirit was to bring to remembrance all that Jesus said and did. Notice the red letters in the Book of Revelation.

The language of Revelation would be familiar to a First Century Jew. John is instructed to draw on familiar forms to speak of our world and all that is taking place. Principalities and powers are spiritual forces allowed by God to test us and to refine us as gold is refined in fire (Rev 3:18). "Be thou faithful unto death" is the rallying cry. We claim the "Joy unspeakable and full of glory" even though we do not understand. "How long Oh Lord?" Until the Purpose is completed.

1. Who is Jesus?

"I once on a train was approached by a Japanese student who saw me reading a book about Jesus. He didn’t know much English. He said, "Can you tell me about Jesus?" I was about to get off the train. I simply told him (he didn’t know the story) that there was this man who was a Jew. He believed that God’s purposes to rescue the whole world were coming to fulfillment. He died to take the weight of evil upon himself. He rose to launch God’s project and to invite the whole world to join in with it and find it for themselves. How long did that take me? 35 seconds? That’s more or less it." N.T.Wright [compare John 4:21-24.]

I love Wright’s focus on Jesus. Older generations tend to start with the New Testament epistles, while younger generations tend to start more with the Gospels. Some teach people about Jesus through books like Romans. Younger people (post-moderns) would rather go straight to the Gospels, preferring to learn from history. They are going to connect more with watching and hearing Jesus teach and minister through reading the Gospels. Some of the older people, who may have more of a church background, are often more interested in doctrine and will be more interested in learning about Jesus through the teachings of Paul.

The good news is, Jesus is central in both approaches. Both approaches are helpful and effective. The main thing is that we are out there teaching people about Jesus, no matter what our approach, and let God work on their hearts.

2. Believe in Jesus!

"And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." John 20:30-31

"Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." John 12:44-48

3. Jesus in Revelation.

"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this." Rev 1:18-19

"But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." Rev 5:5

"Resurrection-language in the first century. Resurrection is not about someone’s truth going marching on while their body remains in the grave, but about bodies coming out of tombs. I suggest that at the heart of Paul’s theology (doctrine), and of his Damascus Road experience, there lay not an idea, but a person; that the historical human being Jesus, not merely some abstract Christian idea, was what grasped the historical Paul and set him about an historical task; that this task was, as far as Paul was concerned, to establish and maintain not philosophical academies but historical communities in which love would be historically lived out, awaiting the historical moment when the world of space and time would be flooded with God’s presence as the fulfillment, not the abrogation, of history itself." N.T.Wright

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
Rev 22:12-13

"And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Rev 22:17  [John 4:13-14]