Ruth D – Does John 10:30 mean that Jesus is equal to God or just a person with the same purpose as God?
Dave – The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that it does not mean equality but rather purpose. Since they deny the deity of Christ, they have to say this. However, the following two verses indicate otherwise because the Jews wanted to stone Jesus because He was making Himself out to be God.
Feedback:
Nels – Right on Dave!
Katelyn P – So recently the Lord has been speaking to me in the Word about Mary Magdalene, which has been great. But now I have a question that I never thought about before: Mary Magdalene and Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, are they the same person? I started to try to find the answer and then the thought came to me that I should ask if you knew more on this topic already. So, what do you think?
Dave – Thanks for your question. For some reason the Roman Catholic Church thought these two Marys were the same person, but sometime in the 1990s they realized this was not true. Protestant churches knew this long ago.
Mary Magdalene most likely came from the town of Magdala. She had 7 demons cast out of her and was among the women who took care of Jesus and His disciples as they traveled about (using their own money for food). Many have thought she was a prostitute but there is no certain Biblical evidence for this. She certainly stuck by Jesus. She was at His crucifixion and went to the empty tomb looking for His body when told He had risen.
Martha’s sister, Mary, was Lazarus’ sister and was from the town of Bethany which is not too far from Jerusalem. This Mary was the woman who sat at Jesus’ feet captivated by His words while her sister Martha was scrambling to serve food/drink to Him (and complained to Jesus that she wasn’t helping her). Hope this helps.
Ed D – I do find it strange that Christ Community Church has traditionally taught that Christ instituted two sacraments, when clearly from the Gospels he instituted three: baptism, foot washing, and communion. Do we just not know how to wash feet or how this sacrament should be carried out?
Dave – Good question.
“There is a difference between foot washing and a sacrament. Jesus was trying to teach His disciples the need for humility and servanthood when He washed their feet. This He did as an example. Jesus said, “I gave you and example that you also should do AS I did to you”(John 13:15). There is, I believe, a significant difference between doing ‘what’ Jesus did and doing something “as” Jesus did. Jesus was serving His disciples out of humility; they should likewise serve each other out of humility. Their humble service was not to be restricted to foot washing. But when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper (Communion) He said, ‘This do in remembrance of Me’ (Luke 22:19). We never see foot washing being practiced by the apostles or anyone else in the Book of Acts or the rest of the New Testament, but we do read that they constantly met together to ‘break bread’ in remembrance of our Lord (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34).”
Feedback:
Nels F (2/26/14) – Great answers here–but last summer I was told by the Lord to wash a international students feet to show him that Jesus wants each of us to serve out of kindness and humility–the student who does not know the Lord was very moved! We serve a mighty God!
Mark (2/26/14) – Great answer, Dave.
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