Monthly Archives: October 2013

Everyone, Everywhere

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EVERYONE EVERYWHERE

 “When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to Him. One by one He placed His hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, ‘Son of God! You’re the Son of God!’ But He shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew Him to be the Messiah.” Luke 4:40-41 (The Message).

After the initial excitement of this new prophet who said and did out-of-this-world things, they all settled into a routine. They dutifully waited until after sunset, when the Sabbath was over, before they brought their ailing friends and relatives to Him for a touch and a word.

Don’t you love the “one by one” bit? He didn’t run a mass healing campaign. ‘Everyone who is sick, come to the front. Now pray a healing prayer.’ He touched them, one by one. I can imagine that, in those few moments, when He placed His hand on a fevered brow, a diseased limb, or an aching belly, the word that He spoke was a tender expression of love, of kindness and reassurance. God was there and He was showing His people just how big His heart of compassion was for them.

Deep into the night they came, patiently waiting their turn for the Master’s touch, with a bubble of expectant excitement inside. They knew that tonight, when they put their heads down to sleep, they would be free of aches and pains and fever, and they would wake to a brand new day.

“He left the next day for open country. But the crowds went looking for Him and, when they found Him, clung to Him so He couldn’t go on. He told them, ‘don’t you realise that there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message of God’s kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to do?’ Meanwhile He continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.” Luke 4:42-44 (The Message).

A strange way to respond to a successful healing campaign, wasn’t it? At the height of success and popularity, He goes missing! Leaves town! Escapes into the country! Was Jesus suffering from “burn out”? Already? His ministry had only just started and He couldn’t take the pace?

Far from it! He knew that His commission was far bigger than a local Capernaum success campaign. He had a message to deliver and work to do that extended over the entire nation, not just to a little pocket of people in Capernaum. Excited and happy as they were, He had to leave them and move on because others needed His message and His ministry.

So what was He actually doing? If He was not running a healing campaign, what was His purpose? Did He come to tell them that, if they accepted Him as Lord and Saviour, they would go to heaven when they died? Was that the sole purpose for His coming? The way the gospel is presented from many pulpits today, that might be what we think He came to do – to die on the cross so that we can go to heaven! Really!

Jesus was always about God’s kingdom. For too long the Liar and Usurper had held sway over the people and they were living with the result — emotional pain, physical distress, social and political upheaval. That was not God’s way. Jesus came to show and tell the real story about God’s rule. Get back under His rule, follow His way and things will be very different.

There was one major obstacle to becoming a part of His restoration plan — sin — the big barrier between God and man. But Jesus came to deal with that as well so that there would be nothing to stop people from returning to the Father and coming back under His rule — right in the heart of enemy territory.

But everyone needed to know, not just Nazareth — and they didn’t want to know — and Capernaum — and they couldn’t get enough. Everyone, everywhere, so they could choose.

You, too.

 

 

The World’s Most Heinous Crime!

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THE WORLD’S MOST HEINOUS CRIME!

“‘I admit that I didn’t always hold to this position. For a time I thought it was my duty to oppose this Jesus of Nazareth with all my might. Backed with the full authority of the high priests, I threw the believers — I had no idea they were God’s people — into the Jerusalem jail right and left, and whenever it came to a vote, I voted for their execution. I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.'” Acts 9-11 (The Message).

What a list of accomplishments to put on your CV, Paul! What a confession! Religious extremist! Fanatic! Murderer! Terrorist! Talk about a religious war! Paul could have been fighting the cause of any one of the world’s most prominent religions today. They all have the same intention — get rid of believers in Jesus; 165,000 Christians murdered every year. Why? What have they done? Put their faith in the Son of God who was raised from the dead? What kind of a crime is that? Why did he do it?

We have only two options — believe in the God who created us in His image or believe in a god we created in our image. How do we know the difference? By our fruit. We always become like the god we worship. If we worship a god we, or someone else, has created in our image, we reveal the nature of that god by our disposition and behaviour.

Paul thought that he was fighting for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but this God revealed Himself as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faitfulness, full of mercy and forgiving sin (Exodus34:6). Does that look like the God he was representing in his murderous hatred of believers?

What was Paul’s problem? He was deceived. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV). There was nothing wrong with his zeal but everything wrong with what he believed.

Why did God not take him out for his actions against His people? He deserved to die there and then, didn’t he? I suspect that God saw beyond his fanatical persecution of Christians to a passionate desire to serve and please the God he thought he knew. That he went about it the wrong way was not the issue. That could be corrected. That he had a heart for God was a characteristic that could be honed into a loyal and faithful son of God and worshipper of Jesus.

A story in the Old Testament clearly illustrates this principle. Isaac, Abraham’s son, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau, it seems, was the more pleasant character. He was an outdoor man, a good hunter and a daddy’s boy. His brother, Jacob, like his name meaning “deceiver”, was a scheming, lying, twisted namby-pamby mommy’s boy.

But Esau had an inborn fault — he had no interest in spiritual things. He gave away his right as the firstborn just to fill his belly on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, Jacob coveted his brother’s position as the firstborn and the privileges and advantages that came with it. Through lies and deception he stole his brother’s birthright and the father’s blessing. For a good part of his life he lived by deceiving and being deceived.

But, from God’s perspective, Jacob’s thirst for spiritual realities was a characteristic He could work with, even though he went about it the wrong way. God moved him, slowly but surely, into the place where he was cornered, wanting to go home, but desperately afraid of Esau and the repercussions of his deception. In an all-night struggle with the Angel of the Lord, Jacob surrendered and he was changed, from “deceiver” to “prince with God.” The same zeal that drove him to lie and steal, now drove him to love and obey God.

God is looking for those who yearn for Him, though they may not know it. He will make Himself known to anyone who seeks Him with all his heart.

Bringing Heaven To Earth

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BRINGING HEAVEN TO EARTH

“He left the meeting place and went to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was running a high fever and they asked Him to do something for her. He stood over her, told the fever to leave — and it left. Before they knew it she was up getting dinner for them.” Luke 4:38-39 (The Message).

Just like that! Luke tells the story in a matter-of-fact way, as though it was an everyday occurrence. Speak to the sickness and it goes! But to the people who observed it, it was riveting.

They were not unfamiliar with miracles. Their Scriptures were dotted with stories of miracles from the time their first forefathers were born; Isaac, conceived by two old people; Rebekah — barren; Rachel — barren; Hannah — barren; and all the miraculous events surrounding their deliverance from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land, to say nothing of the miracles prophets like Elijah and Elisha did.

But that was then and this was now. God hadn’t even spoken to them in four hundred years until John. This was different. Jesus just spoke and things happened on a scale they didn’t believe possible.

What was happening? First John and then Jesus made an announcement that changed everything. “The kingdom of God is here.” What did that mean? Where was the kingdom of God before this? What was the kingdom, anyway? To the Jewish people the kingdom meant the land and people of Israel under their own king and not under the hated Romans.

What did the kingdom mean to Jesus? Jesus had been sent by the Father to represent Him in an enterprise that would take the whole of creation back to His original purpose. For four thousand years God had been preparing the way for His restoration plan, building a nation that would bring forth the Messiah, God in the flesh to show and tell by becoming one of us.

He would show the world what God is really like, repair the damaged relationship with His estranged children by paying their debt for sin, and build a world-wide body of loyal people who would continue what He began, bringing  heaven to earth through living like Jesus did. When demons invaded human beings, they had to go because they did not belong in God’s kingdom. When fever struck Peter’s mother-in-law, it had to go because sickness was not part of the way God did things.

Step-by-step Jesus was introducing His people to what the kingdom of God was all about — not a geographical and political realm like the land and people of Israel, but an inward change of heart towards God where His rule was restored. Like Jesus, His people would have the power to show the world, through their love and generosity and the miracles Jesus did, that God is good, all the time!

Of course He was operating in a fallen world where sin, pain, suffering and death were all very real. God’s kingdom was there, but so was the influence of the demonic realm, manipulating and dominating through deceit. By evicting what was part of the fallen world, Jesus was showing His people what it would be like to live under God’s rule and inviting people to return to God’s original intention.

He had come to pay the price the whole world owed God because there was no-one else on earth qualified to do so. People would no longer have to hide from God. There was nothing in the way any more. They could return to the Father and become a part of His recovery plan.

It’s no wonder that what He said and did shocked them. This was new to them, not anything like the arrogant, harsh and judgmental attitudes of their religious leaders. And they loved Him for it.

Weigh Up The Evidence!

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WEIGH UP THE EVIDENCE!

“He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee. He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and impressed — His teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not the quibbling and quoting they were used to.

“In the meeting place that day there was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, ‘Ho! What business do you have with us, Jesus? Nazarene! You’re the Holy One of God and you’ve come to destroy us!’ Jesus shut him up: ‘Quiet! Get out of him!’ The demonic spirit threw the man down in front of them all and left. The demon didn’t hurt him.

“That set everyone back on their heels, whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?’ Jesus was the talk of the town.” Luke 4:31-37 (The Message).

Just look what you missed, people of Nazareth!

The citizens of Capernaum were a more receptive lot, it seems. At least they didn’t write Jesus off because they thought they knew His pedigree. They saw something more in Him than just the son of Joseph and Mary. They recognised a confidence and an authority in His teaching that set them thinking.

But there was something more than just His words that caused a stir, at least in the spirit world. A demon was there who seemed quite comfortable in the presence of the people of Capernaum until Jesus showed up. This evil spirit occupied a man who, over the years had obviously made space for him in his life by habitually believing his subtle lies and living his dirty life until the demon unobtrusively had taken up residence and begun to control him.

Jesus’ presence in the synagogue blew his cover. Speaking through his host, he blurted out, ‘Jesus, this is my turf and you are intruding. You might look like an ordinary guy from Nazareth, but I know who you really are — God’s Holy One — and I can’t stand being near you! Is it time for you do us in?”

Jesus didn’t answer him. He had no cause for discussion with a demon! His words were terse and commanding: ‘Shut up and get out!’ That’s all. Here was another confrontation with the demonic realm. His victory over the devil in round one had equipped Him to evict the squatters wherever they identified themselves in His presence. His unconditional submission to the Father put Him in position to deal decisively with the opposition.

The residents of Capernaum were unwittingly being confronted with the evidence that they were to weigh up and decide for themselves who this man was and what to do about it. First there were His words — His teaching that impressed them as authoritative and believable because He seemed to know what He was talking about. Then there was His action — throwing out a demon they didn’t know was there! They had never seen that happen before.

What if the people of His own village had been patient enough to watch and listen? Perhaps they might have been more tolerant of their “village kid”, Jesus. Perhaps they would have been convinced that this “son of Joseph and Mary” was actually the Son of God.

And what of us? Jesus is not interested in winning a popularity contest. He had only one question to ask of us, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ On our answer hangs the direction of our lives. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” brings us into the realm of a partnership with Him to throw out all the “squatters” and set the world back on the course of restoration and eventual perfection.

Truth!

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TRUTH!

“All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well He spoke. But they also said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since He was a youngster?’

“He answered, ‘I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, “Doctor, go heal yourself.” Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum. Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during those three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.’  Luke 4:22-27 (The Message).

‘Hey Jesus! Aren’t you treading on thin ice? That’s not the way to win friends and influence people!’

What was He thinking? Was that the way to cash in on His popularity? Why antagonise the people of His own hometown when He had the opportunity to gain a strong following from the ones who already knew Him?

But Jesus was not interested in popularity. He was continually sifting people’s hearts —   looking for followers who would stick with Him through thick and thin because they believed in Him and were convinced that He was the Son of God. He purposely said things to offend, not to be offensive but to expose their reactions.

He knew that “familiarity breeds contempt”. Because He was so well known to them, they would not examine the evidence but write Him off because He was “just a village kid.” They knew His parents and there was nothing special about them.

But there was an even deeper offense that Jesus raised in His examples — Gentiles! This was always a flashpoint for them. It was the Gentiles who had been their undoing throughout their history — they were surrounded by them and they persistently followed their ways and their gods. They had failed to extirminate the Canaanites from the Promised Land. God had warned them that, if they did not, they would be a “thorn in their sides” and they were.

It was the Gentiles who were causing their suffering now, and any mention of them, and especially God’s kindness to them, was like a red rag to a bull. Jonah’s bad experience came from his effort to escape from having to take a message to Nineveh that he knew would result in God’s mercy to THEM if they repented and he was not prepared for that! The people of Nazareth were just like Jonah.

“That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw Him out, banishing Him from the village, then took Him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw Him to His doom, but He gave them the slip and was on His way.” Luke 4:28-30 (The Message).

That didn’t turn out very well, did it? Out on His ear the first time He preached at home. Where did it all go wrong? His fellow-villagers were so blinded by familiarity that they were not prepared to examine the evidence. And they were not the only ones. Wherever He went, there were those who rejected Him because they believed they were right.

It’s this arrogant assumption that we are right that robs us of the wonder of exploring, evaluating and embracing truth wherever we find it. Jesus kept saying, “Look at the evidence,” and His opponents kept insisting, “You are wrong; we are right!” And they killed Him because they believed they were right.

When He walked out of the tomb, who had egg on their faces?