Monthly Archives: December 2013

Check The Fruit

Bible Study, , , ,

CHECK THE FRUIT! 

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” John 1:6-8 (NIV).

Don’t you love the way John puts John the Baptist into the correct perspective? If you have travelled with me through Luke’s gospel, you will have seen how Jesus struggled to teach His disciples to interpret what was going on from the perspective of the kingdom of God. But at that time they just didn’t get it.

He promised them that things would be different after Pentecost — and they were! Once they had the Holy Spirit in them, they saw things from God’s point of view just like Jesus did. Although he was a prophet, John the Baptist’s ministry was unique and special. Just in case anyone mistakenly thought that he was the Messiah, John assures his readers that he was only a witness but a powerful one.

How did John the Baptist bear witness to the light? His preaching on repentance had a twofold purpose — to call God’s people back to a life of generosity and service and to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah who would immerse them in the Holy Spirit.

The religious leaders had led the people away from what God wanted into what they thought God wanted, religious people who meticulously kept the minutest details of the law at the expense of loving God by being kind and generous to all people. John’s preaching was fiery and explicit. He called his curious congregation who went to hear what he had to say, “A brood of vipers, a bunch of bastards — fatherless people!”

“Return,” he urged them. “There is someone coming who is far greater than I. My baptism in water is only a preparation for His baptism of fire.” What Jesus was about to do would be like the fire that consumes the chaff that is beaten off the wheat — He would expose and get rid of everything in His people that was incompatible with God – greed, selfishness, unkindness, pride and arrogance. He was not interested in religious rigmarole. He wanted real people who would love God and love their neighbour.

John the Baptist had no desire to promote himself. His only mission was to prepare the way by alerting the people to their need to get back to the simplicity of God’s way and to recognise the Messiah when He arrived because He would continue what John began.

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent or a husband’s will but born of God.” John 1:9-13 (NIV).

There is a sad note in John’s story — in spite of what John the Baptist preached and testified to, neither the world at large nor God’s people recognised or acknowledged the Messiah when He came. His own people, who should have known Him because they had been taught His Word from their mother’s breast, refused to receive Him.

Since the day when they were taken into covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai, they persisted in rebelling against God’s best way to live and going their own way with disastrous consequences; yet they never learned. And here they were, repeating history all over again.

Except for a few. In God’s story there are always those, few in number, yes, but true children of God who take what God says seriously, act on it and are welcomed into God’s family as dearly loved children. John hastens to add that this is not about natural birth. The Jews assumed that, because they were born Jews and had been circumcised — an external sign of their Jewishness, they were “in” and everybody else was “out”.

John made sure that he told them that it didn’t work like that. There had to be another “birth”, a supernatural one that brought them back into the family of God and reproduced the character of God in them.

How tragic that this erroneous thinking has crept into the church as well! Some branches of the church bring their babies into the family of God by “Christianising” them and “confirming” that ritual when they are of age and yet they have never been supernaturally “born” into God’s family by receiving Jesus as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of sonship (Romans 8:14-16).

Jesus said, “Check the fruit. That’s the real test.”

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Thirty

Devotion, ,

DAY THIRTY

“I saw heaven standing open

and there before me was a white horse,

whose rider is called Faithful and True.

With justice He judges and makes war.

His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns.

He has a name written on Him

that no-one knows but He Himself.

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood

and His name is the Word of God.

The armies of heaven were following Him,

riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.

Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword

with which to strike down the nations.

“He will rule them with an iron sceptre.”

He treads the winepress

of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Revelation 19:11 – 16

Our Jesus is the glorious Conqueror of Satan, sin and death.  He trod the winepress of God’s wrath for us and He is our King of kings and Lord of lords.  We follow Him, our robes made white in His blood and we will live and reign with Him forever and ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Nine

Devotion, , ,

DAY TWENTY NINE

 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,

standing in the centre of the throne,

encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

He had seven horns and seven eyes,

which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

He came and took the scroll from the right hand

of Him who sat on the throne.

And when He had taken it,

the four living creatures and the twenty four elders

fell down before the Lamb. 

Each one had a harp

and they were holding golden bowls full of incense

which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song:

“You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased men for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation.

You have made them a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

Revelation 5:6-10 

Let the full impact of this scene in heaven take a hold of your mind as you read it aloud.  Jesus is the Lamb in the centre of the throne.  He is the reason and the focus of angelic worship and the worship of all redeemed mankind.

 

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Eight

Devotion, , , ,

DAY TWENTY EIGHT

I,  John….was on the island of Patmos

because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus….

On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit

and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet…

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And when I turned I saw seven golden lamp stands,

and among the lamp stands was someone “like a son of man,”

dressed in a robe down to His feet

and with a golden sash around His chest.

His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow,

and His eyes were like blazing fire.

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace,

and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

In His right hand were seven stars,

and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.

His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.

Revelation 1:9a, 10, 12-17

The Jesus we worship is not a baby in a cradle, a carpenter in his workshop or an itinerant preacher walking the dusty roads of Galilee.  He is a glorious and glorified Lord, majestic, beautiful and so terrifying that John, who once leaned on His breast, “fell at His feet as though dead.”  We need to lay aside the image of the human Jesus and focus on the risen Christ who is God and who stands in our place in the presence of the Father to intercede for us.

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Seven

Devotion, ,

DAY TWENTY SEVEN

Now there have been many of those priests,

since death prevented them from continuing in office;

but because Jesus lives forever,

He has a permanent priesthood.

Therefore He is able to save completely

those who come to God through Him,

because He always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest meets our need —

one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart form sinners,

exalted above the heavens.

Unlike the other high priests,

He does not need to offer sacrifices day and night,

first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people.

He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself.

For the law appoints as high priest men who are weak;

but the oath, which came after the law,

appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Hebrews 7:23-28

Oh, how we need to gaze at this Jesus, our high priest.  He’s alive! He’s near.  He wants to be to us everything we need as our advocate and high priest.  He is there at the Father’s right hand, representing you and me to God, presenting His blood as the price for all the debt we owe God, past, present and future.  He calls us to come close to Him and feel His love.