Category Archives: Apologetics

JESUS NOT SAY THAT HE WAS POOR

Apologetics, ,

JESUS NOT SAY THAT HE WAS POOR

Today we begin a new series entitled “Things Jesus did not say.”

Something has been troubling me for a while since I began to study the gospels many years ago. I have come to realise that, when we study the Bible from a Hebrew perspective, there are many things we take for granted as Greek-orientated western thinkers that are just not meant to be interpreted the way we interpret them. Imagine opening a novel set in the American “wild west” and reading it as a story from eighteenth century England. It would make no sense at all.

Unfortunately, that’s the way we westerners read and interpret the Bible if we don’t take into consideration the language and culture of the people who wrote it. As a result, we have developed and passed on a traditional way of understanding passages in the Bible that were never intended to be read that way.

Take, for example, Jesus’ response to the man who requested to follow Him:

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ (Luke 9: 38)

We have “invented“ an interpretation that demands that Jesus was poor, of course backed up by Paul’s statement in 2 Cor. 8:9:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you, through His poverty might become rich.

Of course, there can be no comparison between the riches Jesus enjoyed with the Father and His financial state here on earth, but that does not mean that He was a pauper during His time on earth. He was a Jewish rabbi. He would have been given many offerings by the people who followed Him and benefitted from His teaching. He was supported by wealthy women. After all, His seamless robe was the garment of a wealthy man for which the soldiers gambled as He hung dying on the cross.

Hebrew people used similes and metaphors to illustrate what a thing did rather than what it looked like. Look at God’s instruction to Moses when he asked to see His glory.

When my glory passes by, I will hide you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen. 

Wait a minute! God is spirit. Does He have a hand? No! Then what did He mean? We immediately interpret this to mean a literal hand. If that were true, then the many descriptions of God would lead us to think that He is a grotesque-looking being! A Hebrew person would ask, “What does a hand do?” Their language was based on action and what they experienced with their senses. They would understand that God would protect Moses from seeing His face.

This brings us to Jesus’ statement, Foxes have dens and birds have nests. For what purpose do these creatures have dens and nests? They do not live in them; they reproduce in them. What, then, did Jesus’ head have to do with reproduction?

One of Paul’s pictures of the church is a body. Jesus is the head of the church, the head of His body. However, the church was only born on the day of Pentecost. Before that, He was a head without a body. But why did Jesus need a body?

He came to restore His estranged people to fellowship with the Father through His death. It was His plan to reproduce Himself in the world through the church so that the unbelieving world would see what the Father is really like, not from the distorted picture of God presented by Jewish religion, but from His own life and ministry and from His death and resurrection reproduced in His followers.

When this man came with his request to be a part of the disciples, Jesus was not ready to take him on. The time would come when he would be welcomed into the church as a believer, joined to Jesus as his head, and part of a reproducing body that Jesus would send into the world to “make disciples”. These would in turn, follow Jesus and reproduce Him in the lives of others.

Only after Jesus’ death and resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, when the church was born, did Jesus have a body on which to place His head.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:22-23

That’s how He intended to establish His kingdom on earth, head and body functioning as one, the head directing the body and giving the body life. It is a brilliant model, if only the church would do as He instructed instead of inventing its own model, which has, in the main, failed.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

SO MUCH MORE…

Apologetics, ,

SO MUCH MORE…

“‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

“He will glorify me because it is from me that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what He will make known to you.'” John 16:12-16.

Hallelujah for the Holy Spirit!

Jesus had such confidence in the Holy Spirit that He could anticipate His own departure with the knowledge that He, the Holy Spirit, His unique and intimate partner in the work of salvation, would most competently carry on where He, Jesus, \ left off. In the emotional state His disciples were in at that moment, most of what He was telling them was probably lost to them. They could not cope with the revelation, but the Holy Spirit in them after Pentecost would be the supreme teacher of the truth they could not at that moment bear.

It is difficult for us to conceive of the closeness between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Everything that belongs to the Father is at the disposal of the Son and the Son, in turn, makes every truth and resource that the Father owns, available to us through the Holy Spirit. Although the disciples may not have grasped all that Jesus was revealing to them, their failure to understand would not negate the truth Jesus was telling them. It would all become clear when the Holy Spirit came.

What did that mean to the disciples then and what does it mean to us now? We may not grasp, believe or accept the truth that we are everything to the Father just as His Son Jesus is. He has made us equal to the Son.

“In this world,” said the apostle John, “we are like Jesus.” 1 John 4:17b.

 “Now if we are children of God, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,” declared the apostle Paul (Romans 8:17). According to the writer to the Hebrews, “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” Hebrews 2:11 NIV.

But how can this overwhelming revelation become reality to us? Only as we are willing to set aside our suspicions about God and our reservations about what He has said about us, can we embrace unreservedly the magnitude of what Jesus has done for us through the cross.

Jesus promised His disciples, and us after them, that He would send the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit would make known to us every truth about Jesus and every resource of the Father for us as we can bear them. Why, then, are so many believers of many years still in spiritual kindergarten, unable to move on to spiritual maturity and certainly unable to bear witness to the new life Jesus gave us through His death?

Transformation only comes to us through the renewing of our minds. As we think, so we are. Until we are prepared to fill our minds with truth from the Word of God instead of absorbing what comes from the world, the flesh and the devil, we will remain spiritual “spaghetti”, unable to stand up and become who we are.

The apostle Paul used the word “count” which is an accounting term. Write it in the credit column of who you are — sons and daughters, heirs and equal to Jesus as His brothers and sisters — and live as though it were true because it is. The debit column has been erased. It no longer exists. “He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13b-14.

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that was will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:8-11.

Not only are we alive to God but we are also alive to everything He has made available to us in His Son.  The Holy Spirit administers to us all His resources as need them, and we receive them by faith.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

SHOULD WE PRAY FOR REVIVAL?

Apologetics, ,

SHOULD WE PRAY FOR REVIVAL?

“The word “revival” is from the Hebrew word chayah and means “to bring back to life,” to “restore to consciousness,” or to “restore to a previous condition.” As stated in the Bible, it means a restoration, rejuvenation, or renewal of interest after spiritual neglect, oblivion, or obscurity.” 09 Jan 2018

There are many references to and prayers for revival in the Psalms and Prophets, eg,

“Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you?”
Psalms 85:6 NLT

‘Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.”
Isaiah 1:27 NLT

but we must remember 2 things:

1. The Israelites in the Old Testament were still dead in their sins and under the Law. Revival relates particularly to what is dead or dying. The Israelites, in the main, were still spiritually dead and it was then, therefore, legitimate to pray that God would revive them.

However, Isaiah’s prophecy above relates to new birth in the New Covenant.

We live under the New Covenant and must therefore be guided by the writings in the New Testament Scriptures.

2. God’s people are spiritually alive if they have been born again by God’s Spirit. We cannot ask God to make them alive if they are already alive.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:4‭-‬6 NLT

Let’s look at the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament. How did they pray for the church?

Paul based his prayers for the churches on who God is and what He has done for us in Jesus.

1. There is not a single prayer for revival in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul in particular, often recorded his  prayers for the churches.

2. Paul prayed for God’s people, that they would have spiritual wisdom and insight, enlightenment and understanding about what God had done for them in Jesus.

“Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him… “
Ephesians 1:15-19a NLT

3. Paul prayed that God’s people would know God’s love in all the fulness of its dimensions.

“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,  the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Ephesians 3:14‭-‬19 NLT.

3.Paul prayed and encouraged God’s people to grow in love for one another.

“We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2‭-‬3 NLT

4. Paul exhorted the people to continue to grow in their walk with the Lord.

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:6‭-‬7 NLT

5. Paul encouraged the people to move on to maturity through the gifts and ministries of teaching, training and equipping.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11‭-‬13 NLT

A mature church is a group of people who are

A. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

B. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.” (Taken from my notes on   “Fully Mature”)

7. The Book of Hebrews is full of warnings about turning back to Jewish legalism or falling away through neglect or unbelief.

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?”
Hebrews 2:1‭-‬3 NLT

“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
Hebrews 3:12‭-‬14 NLT

“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.”
Hebrews 6:4‭-‬6 NLT

8. Jesus (and Jude, His brother) taught His disciples how to live our Christian lives so that we never fall away.

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me… When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
John 15:4‭, ‬10 NLT

“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,  and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.c
Jude 1:20‭-‬21 NLT

This short note should help you to understand that God’s people who have been made alive by the Holy Spirit when they believed in Jesus, do not need revival. We need to grow in faith and obedience through prayer, exhortation, encouragement, warning, teaching, training and equipping.

We are in a partnership with the Holy Spirit who teaches us about Jesus, leads us into all truth, enlightens us through the Word, strengthens us to obey and matures us in our faith and love.

Therefore, true prayer in the New Covenant is not about praying for revival but praying that God’s people will grow in their understanding of who the Father is, what He has done for us through the Son, who the Holy Spirit is and what He does in us through our faith in Jesus so that, we can become mature in faith and love.










AFRAID OF WHAT?

Apologetics, ,

AFRAID OF WHAT?

“‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.

“‘Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.'” John 3:16-19 (NIV).

Strange that Jesus almost sounds as though He were a preacher preaching a sermon instead of the Son of God speaking about Himself — the simplest, most well-known and well-loved, yet profoundest words in the Bible!

These words are so simple that a child can understand them. “God loved the world so much that He gave His Son…”

Why did God give His Son? The world was in darkness. What is darkness? We’ve already spoken about John’s use of “darkness”. Adam’s choice to go it alone instead of submitting to God’s authority and doing life God’s way, brought the whole world into disrepair, messed up and falling apart. God had other plans for His creation, plans for everything, including people, to work together in perfect harmony with Him but instead, darkness…

The result was condemnation. God passed sentence on His creation; not just people but everything; the natural world and even the heavens come under the hammer — guilty, condemned and sentenced to death. We see the sad result everywhere.

However, God had a solution — Jesus. He sent His Son to fix everything that was broken. How did Jesus do that? He showed us what the Father is like and what a true son is like and then threw down the gauntlet to the devil, ‘Do your worst and I’ll take it. I’ll release my creation from the curse of their choice. Let’s see what darkness can do.’

Darkness did its worst but Jesus bounced back. There was no darkness in Him and darkness could not hold Him captive. The Prince of Darkness did his worst through the darkness in people but it was not strong enough to snuff out the Light. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, darkness was overcome and He could offer pardon and peace to anyone who comes to Him.

No condemnation! That’s what Paul said. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NIV). They came to the Light, believed in the Light and shed their guilt, shame and fear — forever. God’s verdict is now, “Not guilty; cased dismissed.” Every case the devil brings to Him for judgment is thrown out of court. There is no case because the debt has already been paid.

But there is a peculiar twist to the tale — there are people who actually refuse to accept the verdict — not guilty — and prefer to carry on with the trial and accept a guilty verdict and the sentence that goes with it. Why? How can they be so perverse?

There is only one reason. They love their filthy, twisted, selfish, perverse lives so much that they would rather go to jail than come clean and be set free. It’s okay to enjoy your sin while you can and get away with it but you have to live with the consequences afterwards. That’s one of the problems. People deliberately ignore the “afterwards” bit.

Come on now, let’s be real. What keeps people in darkness? “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” John 3:20 (NIV). There it is! The oldest reason in the Book. Adam hid from God because he was afraid. People hide from God because they are afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of being found out. And when they are found out, they will be punished, so they think.

But wait a minute. Didn’t we say that Jesus has already been punished? No condemnation? So, what’s the problem? They either don’t know or they don’t believe. “God so loved the world…” a love so big and so unfathomable that it sounds too good to be true. But it is true.

Listen to this one: “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love.”1 John 4:18 (NLT).

But there is also hope. “‘But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.'” John 3:21, 22 (NIV). 

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

WHO IS THE HIRELING OF JOHN 10?

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WHO IS THE HIRELING OF JOHN 10?

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” John 10:10

Times without number, I have heard preachers, teachers, and every other category of believer in Jesus, refer to the devil as the one who comes to “kill, steal, and destroy”. Never once, in all my Christian experience, have I ever heard or read a query to this interpretation.

Yet, when I read Jesus’ words in John 10, nowhere does He refer to Satan in His teaching about the hireling and the Good Shepherd. His debate was not with the devil whom He could vanquish with the Word, but with the religious leaders who twisted the Word to suit their own purposes.

In His teaching on the Good Shepherd, Jesus contrasted Himself with the “hireling” who had no interest in the sheep but in what he could gain from shepherding them. When danger or difficulty came, the hireling abandoned the sheep to save his own skin. No mention of the devil here!

By contrast, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, not only takes good care of the sheep whom He knows by name, but He also sacrificed His own life for His flock.

Who, then, was the hireling? Surely, Jesus was referring to the religious leaders, with whom He continually contended because they cared more about themselves than about God’s people. He called them “hypocrites”, play-actors who played the role of “shepherd” to impress their audience.

Matthew 23:2-7; 13-36 is a painful exposure of those who masquerade as shepherds but behave as hirelings. On many occasions, Jesus pointed out their dishonest use of the Law.

“For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’  In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents.  And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” Mark 7:10-13 NLT

These religious leaders were so dishonest that they refused to weigh all the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah and the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. They rejected His claim that His authority came from God. Instead, they crucified Him as a blasphemer because He claimed (and proved by the Word, His works, and the witness of the Father) that He was the Son of God.

Yes, Satan was behind their attitudes and behaviour but, in the end, they made their choices and were the greatest threat to Jesus’ mission. They influenced the people against Jesus despite all the miracles He did for them. Although they made the decision to crucify Jesus, they were ultimately accountable to God, the highest authority, for what they had done.

“Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death.” Matthew 27:20 NLT

‘Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!” And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!” Matthew 27:24-25 NLT

Peter laid the guilt for Jesus’ death squarely at the door of the Jews, including all those, led by the religious leaders, who had clamoured for His death.

“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him.” Acts of the Apostles 2:22-23 NLT

Nowhere did Peter on the day of Pentecost, give credit to the devil for having Jesus crucified. It was the human will by human hands that killed Him. What of today?

There are many “hirelings” in places of leadership in churches across the world today, people who are filthy rich at the expense of the  “sheep” who depend on them for care and guidance. These are the ones who kill, steal and destroy since those who follow them are robbed of money, wisdom and life itself.

Unfortunately, these hirelings are often difficult to identify because they masquerade as shepherds or, as Jesus said, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. We can identify them by their fruit.

I am very wary of those who get people to give either by offering them a reward or by making them feel guilty if they don’t give. Many great so-called compassion ministries are built on the money the big names get out of their followers while they gather wealth for themselves. Some even claim that their wealth is their “reward” for their service. Really! Where do they find that in Scripture?

Three things motivate the hireling that contradict what Jesus taught about the way of God’s kingdom; fame, power and money. Look for these “fruits” in the lives of false shepherds and stay away from them and their teachings.

The tragedy is that, though these false shepherds will take the rap for what they have done, the sheep who blindly follow them will also be lost because they have exchanged the truth for lies.

God holds every individual responsible for what he/she believes and how his/her belief system directs their lives. He has given us the New Covenant in His Word to show us how and provide everything we need to live godly lives.

“For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT

No one can hide behind ignorance as an excuse. We are told to test everything and hold fast to what is good.

“Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 NLT

Jesus warned us that deception will be the greatest threat to believers as time draws to an end. Fear and deception are the devil’s most effective tools, and hirelings his most efficient allies in his quest to draw people away from simple faith in Jesus.

So, my beloved friends, beware of the hirelings who are everywhere and out to lure you away by their smooth-tongued and convincing words that twist God’s Word, pander to your flesh and set you on the path to destruction.

Remain “in Christ”, abide in Him and in His Word. He is your only place of truth and safety.