Monthly Archives: January 2014

He Ripped Off The Covers

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HE RIPPED OFF THE COVERS 

“‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” John 6:56-59 (NIV).

No one had ever preached a sermon like this before!

I can’t help thinking, as I ponder on Jesus’ words, that no other man could or would dare to make the claims He was making. Those who have claimed to have new revelation from God, like the ones who have twisted the Bible or added to it or subtracted from it, have never gone as far as to identify themselves with their message.

Joseph Smith, for example, asserted that the Book of Mormon was new revelation from God and that it took precedence over the Bible but he did not call people to believe in him as the one sent from heaven. Mohammed claimed to be God’s prophet and superior to all other prophets but he did not claim to be God.

More than that, no other human being predicted in detail his own death and the manner of his death as well as his resurrection and then fulfilled it to the letter. If one is planning suicide, that would work but not violent death at the hands of others and certainly not resurrection three days later.

In this sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum, He was offering the gift of eternal life through His broken body and shed blood and through a union with Him that was as intimate as the food that one ate, that was digested and absorbed and became a part of one’s body, replacing cells and providing energy for one’s muscles.

The manna that their ancestors ate in the wilderness only sustained their physical lives. They lived out their natural lives and died of old age or, in the case of many of them, unnatural and premature deaths because of their sin against God. This happened because they did not trust the God who had entered into a covenant with them that promised them real and eternal life if they obeyed Him.

To “eat” Jesus implied to believe what He said and act upon His word so that it became their very lives. It meant allowing Him to replace self as the energy, motive and driving force of their lives. It meant absorbing His word into their spirits as they absorbed food into their bodies and derived sustenance and strength from it to continue their physical existence.

“On hearing this, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can accept it?'” John 6:60 (NIV).

Of course it was a hard saying if they misunderstood what He meant? Why didn’t Jesus spell out what He meant in plain language? Why did He use an offensive illustration like eating His flesh and drinking His blood? Could He not have explained it more simply? When He taught in parables, His disciples got His point without too much trouble.

This was His way of exposing the hearts of His disciples. He was not interested in having yes-men for disciples. He often said and did things that offended them because that was what exposed what they were thinking.

When He told them about His impending suffering and death, for example, Peter exploded in protest. Why? Because he rejected the prophecies that spoke of a Suffering Servant. Even the crucifixion of Jesus was offensive to His disciples until they understood the deeper meaning of His death.

That’s how God works with us as well. He allows people and circumstances to offend us so that what is in our hearts is exposed by our reaction. Only then can we face up to ourselves if we are honest, and allow Him to transform us from the inside through the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of His word. When we allow His truth to replace the lies we believe, we are in the process of becoming one with Him.

 

Come To The Table

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COME TO THE TABLE

“‘I AM the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.’

“The Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?'” John 6:48-52 (NIV).

Jesus’ words sound bizarre, don’t they? What in the world is He talking about and how can He expect His hearers to believe what He is saying?

Once more a literal interpretation of His words leaves us with the idea that He is advocating cannibalism! But we know that He cannot possibly imply that, so what is He saying?

We have to turn again to the Hebrew way of thinking. Where the “western” Greek-orientated mind-set is to interpret His words literally, the ancient Hebrew mind would recognize something different in His meaning.

Middle-eastern people were very hospitable but they never ate with anyone with whom they had issues. To eat with someone meant much more than sitting down together and sharing a meal. They only ate a meal with someone with whom they were reconciled.

This practice arose from the origin of the ancient concept of a table. The Paleo-Hebrew word for a table – shulkan – was also the word for reconcile and lamb skin, depending on the sense in which it was used. The connection between these meanings was like this: where there was no table available, for example, when they left Egypt in haste and they had to eat the Passover meal in readiness to leave, the skin of the lamb that was eaten at the Passover was used as a “table”, a sort-of picnic blanket.

The members of the family had to eat a sacrificed lamb as a symbol that they had set aside their differences and were one with each other. They could not travel together on a long journey if they had issues. Hence a meal – shul – was eaten at the table – shulkan– as a symbol of reconciliation.

Was Jesus inviting the people to be reconciled to God through His flesh? It sounds very much as though that was what He was getting at. There is certainly no hint that He was implying that, in some mystical way, the bread eaten and the wine drunk at the Last Supper literally became His body and blood. That would make Him the advocate of cannibalism which is unthinkable.

It also denies the clear teaching of Scripture that His death was a once-for-all, never-to be-repeated, all-sufficient sacrifice which reconciled us to the Father. To insist that, every time we participate in the memorial feast of “Communion” or the Lord’s Supper, we are re-sacrificing the Son of God and eating His actual flesh and drinking His actual blood is to turn it into a satanic ritual rather than a symbol of what He did on the cross for us.

“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.'” John 6:53-55 (NIV).

When we read His words with the understanding that He was talking about reconciliation, not cannibalism, they make a whole lot of sense. To be reconciled to the Father through the sacrifice of His Son brings us back into union with the source of life. Physical death cannot separate us from Him because He has conquered death. Just as bread sustains and energizes our physical bodies, so also, as we “feed” on Him, our spirits are nourished, and our life in Him grows.

Jesus was not instituting a new, cannibalistic religion, but teaching God’s people that the sacrificial lamb they ate when they celebrated the Passover was only a picture of what He would do on the cross. His death would bring them back into fellowship with the Father and reconnect them with the source of life.

Do you have this life?

A Divine Partnership

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A DIVINE PARTNERSHIP 

“At this the Jews there began to grumble about Him because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, ‘I came down from heaven?’ ‘

“‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: “They shall all be taught by God.” No one has seen the Father except  the one who is from God; only He has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.'” John 6:41-47 (NIV).

The plot thickens!

Jesus’ assertions were stirring up the same old antagonism that got the people of Nazareth going against Him. The people of Capernaum could also not get past what they believed to be His ancestry — Joseph and Mary, the village couple from Nazareth. Here was a man, a flesh-and-blood man who stood before them making outrageous claims about Himself which were either dangerously blasphemous or true and they had to decide.

He held out the offer of eternal life and they had either to believe what He said or reject Him and His words. But that was not enough. If He were nothing but a deranged man or a liar, they had to get rid of Him because people were taking Him seriously and following Him because of the miracles He was doing, and they had no answer for that.

It was a tough choice for them to make. Were they to believe Him and risk the wrath of the religious leaders who had already made up their minds about Him, or were they to ignore His compelling works and words and reject Him as a phoney? What could they make of His claim, ‘I came down from heaven’? If that were true, then He would be saying that He already existed with God before His entry into the world as a human being. That would make Him God. Exactly! But how could a man be God?

Then He spoke of the Father as though He knew Him; as though He worked with Him in partnership and unity and as though He shared His power and authority. But that was exactly it, and they could not fathom how this could be!

Slowly but surely Jesus was building a case for His identity as the Son of God. He had to demolish their misunderstanding and prejudice and get past their fixed ideas and expectations about the Messiah and bring them to a willingness to watch and listen and weigh up the evidence.

This was not about inviting them to join a cause. This was about convincing them that He was the Son of God. Only on that basis would they believe in Him and give themselves unreservedly to Him, follow Him and receive from Him a new life which would catapult them into a kingdom and under an authority that would utterly transform their lives.

Jesus was intimating that He had a partnership with God, whom He called His Father that was so close that they worked together in perfect unity. It was the Father who drew them fo the Son and it was the Son who would give them resurrection life. According  their revered prophets, there would be a time when His people would be personally instructed by God. Was He telling them that the time was now; that He, Jesus was actually God and that He was teaching them the truth from God?

As the one who was sent from God, He had seen the Father; implying not so much God’s visible image, for God is spirit, but seeing and understanding Him in the inner depths of His being because, according to John, He was with God from the beginning.

It is faith that opens the door to “sight”, not the other way around. If they took Jesus’ word seriously and put their trust in Him, they would have 20/20 vision in the realm of the useen which would propel them beyond struggle and mere existence into life where they would experience ever-increasing wholeness in the realm of God’s perfection.

 

 

Crazy Or True?

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CRAZY OR TRUE? 

“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

“‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him whom sent me.

“‘And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose none of all those He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.’” John 6:35-40 (NIV).

Jesus made some crazy statements — unless, of course, they were true!

Firstly, He made the claim that only God could make, ‘I AM.’ But then, before He ever came to the earth in the flesh, He was already here, filling heaven and earth with His presence. He introduced Himself to Moses as “I AM” at the burning bush. How do we know that it was Jesus and not the Father? Because He, the second person of the Trinity, was “the true light that gives light to everyone” and the “life that was light to all mankind” (John 1), the light that was already present on the earth on the first day of creation.

Then He claimed to be bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty. Now we know that He didn’t mean that literally! That was also true because He left a trail of people who believed in Him and followed Him. They went on to tell the world of the peace and satisfaction He gave them which they could find nowhere else and in nothing else.

He also assured them that He would never turn away anyone who believed in Him because they were the Father’s gift to Him. He had pledged to give them eternal life and to raise their bodies at the consummation of the age (the last day) to live in a realm where death and decay would never touch them again.

He spoke of an intimate relationship with the Father where they worked together in unity to restore everything that man had destroyed by his disobedience. Death was the penalty that was passed on to all creation. Even stars die, so the scientists tell us. It was not supposed to be like that but Adam’s decision to go it alone disrupted God’s plan to create a universe where everything functioned in perfect harmony.

How could Jesus be so sure that He would reverse the curse of death that had fallen on the entire creation? Although His death to pay the debt of Adam’s rebellion, and the debt of the entire human race, was accomplished at a specific time in history, from God’s perspective it was a fait accompli from before the foundation of the world. It was a done deal. Jesus could speak of it as a completed transaction.

He forgave sinners because of His sacrifice. He healed sick bodies, raised the dead and evicted demons because He had already overcome the enemy. He had the right to give eternal life to whoever believed in Him then, as well as now because He conquered death and rose from the grave,

He spoke with authority and assurance of what He would do, not because He was crazy but because He was the Son of God.

It hurts me to see how hard people work to secure the favour of their god or gods, bathing in a sacred river to have their sins washed away, faithfully chanting prayers and carrying out rituals, performing ceremonies, sacrificing animals and calling on the dead for help when He offers the free gift of eternal life to those who believe in Him. Not only that but He promises and makes good on His promise to provide the satisfaction that ends our search to fill an empty heart.

Why is it so difficult to believe Him when He proved Himself true by His resurrection? Is it because we do not trust His promise that His gift and His grace are free? He paid the bill so that we can receive the goods.

Have you received Him?

Bread From Heaven

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BREAD FROM HEAVEN 

“Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.’ So they asked Him, ‘What sign, then, will you give so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”‘

“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

“‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.'” John 6:28-34 (NIV).

These people were well influenced by their religious leaders and still thought and operated in the natural.

Jesus had just challenged them, ‘Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.’ John 6:27a. Their response was, ‘What must we do…?’ thinking that there was something extra that they must add to their already burdensome performance to guarantee them an eternal existence beyond the grave.

Jesus’ response took them back to the simple requirement He had persistently told them which they did not seem to hear or understand. It was not about works but about faith in Him that opened the door to what He called “life”. The people clung to Moses as their model because he was the agent through whom God did mighty miracles in the wilderness and delivered them from the Egyptians.

In spite of their ancestors’ grumbling against Moses and their disobedience and unbelief towards God and His miraculous interventions, these people still saw these mighty miracles as the sign that it was God who was with them and who led them to the Promised Land.

According to them it was Moses who had given them the manna which sustained them for forty years in the wilderness. He didn’t multiply a few barley loaves to feed a few thousand. He gave them an abundance of manna every morning which fed millions! That was Moses’ sign that it was God who was doing it. ‘What can you do, Jesus, to better that?’

Already their unbelief was working overtime! Why did they follow Him across the lake in the first place, and then back to Capernaum when they didn’t find Him where He had been the day before? Was it because He was feeding their souls with the living bread — His word? No! He had already diagnosed their motive — a free meal at God’s expense! They were certainly “working” for that bread.

Providing manna for millions of people every day was a small miracle compared with the greater miracle of God coming in person to provide “bread” that would sustain them forever. But they could not see it. The life He offered them was not simply an extra-long biological life on the earth but a supernatural quality of life in union with Him that freed them from the fear, guilt and shame that drove them to hide from God because of their sin.

The “bread” of which Jesus spoke was a symbol of the bread, His word that would nourish and sustain their spirits in an unbreakable connection with Himself. Because He would do away with the barrier of sin which had disconnected them from God and left them unprotected against the judgment of God, they would reconciled to God. They would be able to live in fellowship with Him without the sacrifices and mediators they forced to go through now.

Once again their response revealed their misunderstanding of His offer. The Samaritan woman thought He was offering her a supply of water that would relieve her of the burden of carrying water from the well every day. They thought that He would give them bread, like the manna, which simply fell from heaven and saved them the labour of having to bake their daily supply.

Because their minds were locked into the natural, as we shall see, their unbelief mirrored the unbelief of their ancestors and they forfeited the opportunity to receive this “bread” and enter the fullness of the life He offered.

Have you “eaten” this bread?