Monthly Archives: April 2016

The Peril Of Hearing

Christian Life, , , ,

THE PERIL OF HEARING

He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ (Mark 4: 21-23)

How does this statement fit in with the parable of the four soils and its explanation? I think Jesus was talking about Himself. He was revealing His reason for this teaching. We have already explored the meaning of being “the light of the world”. We learned from the Tanakh – the Old Testament – that “light” often refers to the Word of God.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psa. 119: 105)

When Jesus described Himself as the “light of the world” He was calling people to follow Him because He walked in the light of God’s Word (John 8: 12). He came into the world to be the light – to show people how to interpret and live by the Word of God. Of what good would it be, then, to be in the world as a light but to put the lamp under a “bowl” or a bed where its light would not shine in the room? It was His responsibility to shine the light by both living and teaching the Word of God so that what was hidden in people’s hearts would be exposed.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1: 4-5)

Every time He told a story, people would either react or respond to it according to what was in their hearts. This was His purpose so that no one would be able to hide behind the excuse that they did not know.

This is where we come to the importance of the disciple’s response. Why did Jesus teach in parables? He told them why.

The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside everything is said in parables. (Mark. 4: 11)

Jesus taught in parables to differentiate between those who sincerely chose to follow Him and those who were in it for what they could get out of it. The very parables He taught would either harden or soften their hearts according to their choices.

But with His teaching comes a warning. Even from those who wanted to follow Him, there were degrees of response. Some would follow with their whole hearts and unreserved obedience while others would follow guardedly and with reservations, picking and choosing what they wanted to obey.

‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ He continued. ‘With the measure you use it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’ (Mark 4: 24-25)

Jesus warned that the measure with which they responded would be the measure of what they received. Those who responded to His teaching and obeyed it wholeheartedly would receive more. Those who did not give Him wholehearted allegiance and obedience would lose what little they had. Once again the measure of the truth they received and the measure of their fruitfulness depended not on God but on them.

He had already made it clear to His disciples that the ones “on the outside” would be taught in parables to confirm where they already were in their unresponsiveness and unbelief. Now He fine-tuned it even further. Through their choices, according to the interpretation of the parable, they had already forfeited the opportunity of receiving Him as their Messiah because they had refused to receive and walk in the light of the Word. His disciples, likewise, would receive light – enlightenment – according to the measure with which they received the Word.

Judas, for example, was one of the disciples – on the “inside” as compared with those “on the outside” and yet, in the end, he was worse than those on the outside. Even from his privileged position as a chosen disciple of Jesus, he had received nothing and lost everything. He was there at that moment, hearing the parable and its explanation and the exhortation, and receiving the warning. But, like the path where the seed fell and was snatched away, he heard nothing; or like the stony ground, there was no root, or even like the thorny soil, what little response there was, was choked by the thorns that were already growing there.

How, then, did Jesus expect His talmidim to respond? Everything He was to them, everything He had taught them and trained them to do moved them towards this moment. They would determine the measure of truth they would receive and the measure of their fruitfulness. Whether they gained more or lost what they had, whether they were abundantly fruitful in their lives or pathetically unfruitful depended entirely on them.

Jesus promised them the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who accompanied Him on His journey to the cross. The same power that enabled Him to live a sinless life, to die as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world and to rise from the dead would be in them to enforce what they believed. Theirs was the choice. Would they hear or would they refuse to hear?

Everything grows from a seed. God’s word is a seed. In it is the potential for abundant fruitfulness. There is nothing to restrict its growth except the condition of the heart. In every disciple’s heart there is the potential to ignore or reject the Word where there are areas of hardness and unbelief, or shallow soil where the roots cannot penetrate, or even thorny ground where our hearts are split by all-consuming concerns or desires. It is up to us to choose the measure of our response and the measure of what we gain or lose.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

The Four Soils Explained

Christian Life, , , , ,

THE FOUR SOILS EXPLAINED

When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

‘They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’ (Mark 4: 10-12)

But this seems so contrary to what God really wants. Doesn’t He want everyone to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth? Jesus’s response was both astonishing and puzzling.

Firstly, He explained that His stories had two different purposes for two different groups of people. The disciples were chosen for their potential to become authentic disciples and their willingness to embrace Jesus’s teaching and believe in Him. The other group – which Jesus called “those on the outside” – had shown by their response to the Word that they either refused to receive His Word, or their faith was temporary and conditioned by their circumstances.

He was actually teaching by parables to harden people in their unbelief! Why would He do that? These people had a choice. Every time someone heard the Word of God and failed to believe and live by it, his heart became a little harder and he was less able to hear and receive the Word. Jesus knew, as He taught the people, how this worked in practice.

His people had responded like this to the covenant at Mount Sinai. In spite of all the evidences of His love and care for them during their journey through the wilderness, they murmured and complained every time they were put to the test. Their rebellion was proof of their unbelief. His provision of manna and water, His protection against the dangers of the journey and the enemies that came against them, instead of growing their trust, only hardened their hearts against Him.

Secondly, Jesus explained the meaning of the parable. One kind of seed, four kinds of soil, four different responses to the seed.

  1. Footpath ground

Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. (Mark. 4: 15)

The footpath resembles the hearts of people who fail to believe anything they hear from the Word of God. They are so hardened in their unbelief that nothing penetrates. The Word simply lies on the surface until Satan snatches it away. It’s as though they had never heard it at all.

What makes people’s hearts so hard that they reject God’s word?

  • Some have chosen to follow false religions. They resolutely believe lies and refuse to acknowledge or believe the truth when it is presented to them.
  • Some people’s hearts become hardened through persistent disobedience. Every time they hear the Word and choose to disobey, they become less sensitive to God’s directions. They resist the Holy Spirit so often that they can no longer hear His voice.
  • Some people become insensitive to the Word because they feed on worldly “junk food”; movies, TV programmes, magazines, and books which present the ungodly ways of the world and feed the flesh. They have no appetite for the Word of God because they have fed so long on “junk food”.

Although these responses might apply to people as a whole, there is a sense in which this story illustrates the way everyone responds to different facets of God’s Word. Some parts of the Bible are palatable and we receive them gladly while other parts are rejected because they demand something of us which we don’t like. Wherever a part of our hearts become hardened, the Word is snatched away and we lose our capacity to respond to it in that area.

We may, for example, classify ourselves as believers but if, for one reason or another, we are practising sin, say, having sexual relations with a boyfriend or fiancée with the excuse that “we will get married one day”, and we refuse to obey God’s instruction, we will not respond to His rebuke. We will have lost our ability to hear that word because we have chosen our will above His will.

  1. Shallow topsoil

Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (Mark 4: 16-17)

Have you ever tried to grow plants in shallow topsoil? The seeds germinate readily enough but the hot sun soon withers them because the roots are too shallow to anchor the plants or to reach water to sustain them.

What constitutes “rocky soil” in people’s hearts? Unlike the footpath, they do have some topsoil, but it does not have enough depth for roots to establish themselves and anchor the plant.

”Shallow” people usually don’t take anything seriously. They are not interested in the real issues of life. As long as they can get along without too much inconvenience, they are satisfied. Their relationships are superficial, their values opportunistic, their behaviour selfish and their motives self-seeking. They are not prepared to work at creating harmony in their relationships. Any clashes, any misunderstandings and they cut the other person out of their lives. Everything must work for their benefit or they are not interested. They crack under pressure. They cannot take adversity.

They are always on the defensive, never willing to ask for or take advice or change the way they think. They take everything personally, are easily offended, speaking and acting defensively instead of learning something from the situation that will be of benefit to their character.

They embrace the message of Jesus readily enough as long as it is to their benefit but, when He begins to apply a little pressure to grow their faith and mature them in their relationship with Him, either through people or circumstances, they take offence and walk away. Unless the gospel works for them the way they expect it to, they do not want it.

  1. Thorny ground

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (Mark 4: 18-19)

This condition describes what the Bible calls a “divided heart”. With penetrating insight, Jesus diagnosed the three symptoms of a divided heart.

  • The worries of this life.

Worry causes people’s hearts to split into two – either “what if” or “if only”. “What if” concerns itself with the future and “if only” with the past. Instead of living life now, they are held captive to the past by regret or the future by fear. This kind of enslavement is tenacious. Regret or fear takes hold of the mind and cannot easily be shaken off. Their minds are “split” by being “here” but also “there” – in the past or in the future but not in the “now”.

  • The deceitfulness of riches

Greed also causes people’s hearts to be split. Since what they have is not enough, they live in the future, always scheming to make more so that they will have “enough” – however much that might be. They are deceived by the devil into believing that they would be contented if they only had enough. They are here “now” in body but they live in the future in anticipation of enjoying life “then” while life passes them by now because they have pinned their contentment on a mirage in the unknown future. They are split by trying to live “then” as well as “now”.

  • The desire for other things

This hits at the very heart of their relationship with God. This is what the Bible calls “covetousness”. When they are dissatisfied with what they have and constantly hanker for “other things”, they are in effect accusing God of short-changing them. God has been unfair. He has given this “thing” to this person, that “gift” to that one that they would like. Therefore they covet what they do not have instead of being grateful and content with what they do have.

Instead of their hearts being satisfied with “this” so that they appreciate what they have and be contented with their gifts, and can develop their potential, they want “that”. Split again! They try to live another person’s life, coveting their possessions or their gifts and wasting what God has given them on useless desires that will never be fulfilled.

How can the seed of the Word of God grow and be productive in soil that is cluttered with beliefs and desires that are contrary to everything that God is? The seed has no hope of ever taking root and producing a crop in soil fouled with pernicious anti-God attitudes.

  1. Good ground

Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop – thirty, sixty and even a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4: 20)

Hearts that are not cluttered with pre-conceived ideas and beliefs, or that are willing to relinquish what reduces their ability to reproduce, will receive the Word, put down deep roots, endure all kinds of conditions and produce a harvest of spiritual fruit according to the seed sown. Like the good soil into which some of the seed falls, the volume of the harvest will depend on the preparedness of the soil to receive the seed.

The harvest from the good soil does not merely reproduce the same number of seeds as were sown. This is how God’s harvest works; He multiplies what is sown by huge margins because He is superabundantly generous!

What is the point of this story, then? There is nothing wrong with the seed. The potential to germinate, grow and produce a harvest is locked up in itself. Whether it grows and produces a harvest depends on the environment into which it is sown. God has given each person the power to choose. The productiveness of His Word in their lives depends on what they choose to do with it.

There are factors which influence their choices – the character of the person and the thought patterns and beliefs that have been laid down in their hearts. The final outcome, harvest or no harvest, will depend on their response or lack of response to the Word of God.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

The Disciples’ Response

Christian Life, , , ,

THE DISCIPLES’ RESPONSE

Jesus’s ministry was in its infancy. He was so popular that He had to make escape plans from time to time to evade the crowds and to keep the purpose of His coming in focus. It would have been easy to succumb to popularity and just be a miracle healer at the beck and call of needy people. After all, wasn’t it His purpose to reach as many people as possible?

But there was another part of Jesus’s ministry that was equally important, that of training His disciples because they were assigned the task of continuing where He left off. Wasn’t that why He called men to follow Him?

What Jesus had to say as recorded by Mark is the perfect way to conclude His directions for this journey that His disciples were on, and we are on if we define ourselves as disciples of Jesus. This was not about how they did respond but how, as His talmidim, they should respond.

Jesus told a story about a farmer who sowed seed in his field. This is a matter-of-fact story about how things are. It makes no demands and needs no response. It prescribes no treatment. It is like a doctor’s diagnosis, telling the patient what condition he has according to his symptoms. It was up to each listener to figure out his or her place in the story.

Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty or even a hundred times. Then Jesus said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ (Mark 4: 3-9)

How did Jesus come up with a story like this? Was it a traditional story told by the rabbis or was it His own, a masterful diagnosis of people’s responses to the Word of God? As someone who had keen powers of observation and astute interpretation, coupled with His intimate knowledge of the Scriptures and understanding of human nature, He was able to tell a simple story to illustrate the way people dealt with His teaching.

Easy as the story was to understand, not even the disciples got the point. When they were alone with Him, they questioned Him about the parable, I can imagine them asking, “Rabbi, why do you tell so many stories. Why don’t you just teach them the plain truth?”

When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

‘They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’ (Mark 4: 10-12)

But this seems so contrary to what God really wants. Doesn’t He want everyone to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth? Jesus’s response was both astonishing and puzzling.

Firstly, He explained that His stories had two different purposes for two different groups of people. The disciples were chosen for their potential to become authentic disciples and their willingness to embrace Jesus’s teaching and believe in Him. The other group – which Jesus called “those on the outside” – had shown by their response to the Word that they either refused to receive His Word, or their faith was temporary and conditioned by their circumstances.

He was actually teaching by parables to harden people in their unbelief! Why would He do that? These people had a choice. Every time someone heard the Word of God and failed to believe and live by it, his heart became a little harder and he was less able to hear and receive the Word. Jesus knew, as He taught the people, how this worked in practice.

His people had responded like this to the covenant at Mount Sinai. In spite of all the evidences of His love and care for them during their journey through the wilderness, they murmured and complained every time they were put to the test. Their rebellion was proof of their unbelief. His provision of manna and water, His protection against the dangers of the journey and the enemies that came against them, instead of growing their trust, only hardened their hearts against Him.

Secondly, Jesus explained the meaning of the parable. One kind of seed, four kinds of soil, four different responses to the seed.

(To be continued)

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

The Three Greatest Qualities Of A Disciple

Christian Life,

THE THREE GREATEST QUALITIES OF A DISCIPLE

Jesus concluded both His prayer and the Upper Room discourse with a summary of all He had imparted to them and prayed for them.

Righteous, Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and I myself may be in them. (John 17: 25-26)

One almost feels sad that this prayer had come to an end and, at the same time, guilty for eavesdropping on sacred moments like these between the Father and the Son. And yet, since the disciples overheard the prayer and John wrote it down, it is obvious that Jesus wanted them to be a part of it.

We would expect that a summary like this, short as it is, would contain the essence of Jesus’s heart for His disciples – those who were with Him then and those who would come after them.

Three thoughts emerge that encapsulate Jesus’s heart for His disciples;

  1. Knowledge

He wanted them to know the Father. Jesus “knew” the Father in the deepest and most intimate sense of the word. He came to reveal the Father and to give them the name which was most precious to Him. How did Jesus reveal the Father to them? By speaking about Him, by doing His works and by being a perfect replica of the Father to them.

This was an ongoing commitment, entrusted to the Holy Spirit when He left them. As the Spirit revealed Jesus to the disciples and reminded them of the words He had spoken to them, so their intimate knowledge of the Father would increase and their fellowship with Him would deepen. This would be the hallmark of their lives as His followers, loving and submitting to the Father just as Jesus had done.

  1. Love

Jesus’s passion was not only that the disciples know the character of the Father but that they would also know His love. The Father loved the disciples in exactly the same way as He loved His Son. That they were human, finite and fallible made no difference. He loves because of who He is and not because of who we are. To be so sure of that love that no adversity of any kind could shake their confidence in the Father’s love was Jesus’s goal for them. God’s love for them, as it was for Him, would be their anchor through the storms of life.

They, like all people, had been created to live in the circle of the unity and intimacy between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through His sacrifice, Jesus has removed all barriers and invites us also to enjoy the love and favour that God, the three in one, offers to all who will choose to believe His promise and to live loved, just as He did on earth.

  1. Unity

To be one with His disciples, each one in Him and He in them, was His highest ambition. To direct their lives through the indwelling Spirit was the only guarantee that His message would not be distorted, and that the message of God’s love would be taken to the world.

Jesus did not aim for great buildings, great leaders or great ministries. When we listen to His heart, what do we hear? He wanted His followers to know the Father, to understand the Father’s passion as Jesus mirrored it in His life.

He wanted His disciples to be ensnared by the love of God. His love was to steady them in times of trouble, to guide them along His path, to enrich their lives so that they would reflect Him, and to be the spectacles through which they looked at and interpreted every circumstance, good or bad.

He yearned to be in them in such close unity that they would be an extension of Him on earth, understanding His heart and doing His will through the Holy Spirit in them.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

Jesus Prayed For Us

Christian Life, , , ,

JESUS PRAYED FOR US

Just imagine – as Jesus’ prayer embraced the disciples in their desperate need at that moment, so His prayer follows every disciple from then to this very moment and beyond!

  1. Unity

What was the kernel of His prayer for all those who would follow Him down the ages through the message of His disciples?

His passion for us, as it was for them, is for the unity among His followers which reflects our oneness with Him and with the Father.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17: 20-21)

Why is unity between the Father, Jesus and His disciples so crucial to Jesus? As we have already discussed, only the life of Jesus flowing to and through His disciples can produce the fruit of His nature in them. Nothing will convince the world of the truth of who Jesus is like the love the disciples have for one another (John 13: 34-35) and the supernatural unity between them which reflects the unity between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The amazing thing is that this unity already exists, even between strangers. Meet a true brother or sister in Christ for the first time and the connection is already there. Spirit bonds with spirit before a word is spoken. The opposite is true when the Spirit of Jesus encounters the spirit that is in the world. The clash of light and darkness is evident without saying a word.

How tragic, then, that the church of Jesus is so fragmented today that unbelievers have to ask why there are so many different denominations. The church, to a large extent has been hijacked by so-called “spiritual leaders” who draw followers after themselves instead of connecting them to Jesus.

Even the Apostle Paul recognised this as a symptom of disunity in the infant church at Corinth.

My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised into the name of Paul? (1 Cor. 1: 11-13)

How do we foster and maintain the unity which the Holy Spirit has created between believers? Paul urged the Ephesian church, and all who read his letter, to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Why?

There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4: 4-6)

How do we keep the unity? Submission is the key; dying to self (Gal. 2: 20); humbly submitting to Jesus as Lord (Eph. 5: 24); to spiritual leaders (Heb. 13:17); to one another (Eph. 5:21); wives to husbands (1 Pet. 3: 5-6); and having the attitude of Jesus (Phil 2: 5-11).

  1. Our glory

I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. (John 17: 22)

What was the glory which Jesus gave to His disciples? Certainly not the glory which Peter, James and John witnessed on the Mount of Transfiguration and of which John spoke in John 1: 14:

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,

Peter was an eyewitness of that same glory of which he wrote:

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain. (2 Pet. 1: 16-18)

The glory of which the three disciples were eyewitnesses was but a momentary glimpse of the glory that the Son had with the Father before the world began.

But Jesus referred here to another “glory” which was associated with His suffering. This was the glory which He gave to His disciples. “What kind of glory is this?” you may ask. Jesus gave Peter an inkling of the kind of glory his death would display:

‘I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’  Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ (John 21: 18-19)

There is a hidden glory in the suffering He asks us to endure for His sake. It is both the glory of identifying with Him in His suffering and the richness of His grace which, apart from our need, we would never experience.

Something unusual happens when people are thrown together in their suffering. Both the best and the worst comes out of them. Stories from the terrible suffering at the hands of the Germans in the concentration camps during WW2 reveal both the depth of selfishness and the heights of selfless love.

This was the heart of Jesus’ prayer for His disciples in the future – that they would grasp the glory of sharing in the suffering of others so that their hearts would be bonded into one. In the midst of the darkness of a greedy and selfish world, the light of unselfish love shines brightly to reflect the glory of God.

  1. Love

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:  23)

Deeper and deeper went Jesus into the relationship between Himself, the Father and His followers. He dared to ask the Father that the love they shared as Father and Son would be the same love shared between the Father and His human sons and daughters. At the Father’s instruction, Jesus gave them, and all those who follow after them His name. Included in the gift of that name was the power of attorney to use that name. Never before in all of history were people allowed to use the name of the Father. What did this imply?

So great is the love the Father has for His human children that He is willing to risk giving them power of attorney to use His name, to ask in His name and to receive whatever they asked for, because they ask in the authority and according to the nature of His name. This is like a father giving his son a blank cheque on the understanding that the love and trust between them would prevent his son from abusing the privilege. Because the father loves and trusts his son, the son in turn would honour that trust by spending his father’s money wisely.

This is the kind of love the Father has for His children, entrusting to us all the privileges of sonship on the understanding that we will not abuse those privileges because we love the Father. We will respond to His love by honouring Him and upholding what He values and stands for by our submission and obedience to Him.

  1. His glory

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17: 24)

Where is this all leading? Jesus renounced His right to retain His glory when He came to earth as a human being. But this was a temporary interlude. When He took on human flesh, He took it on forever, but when He laid aside His glory, it was for a season and for a purpose. The time was coming when the Father would exalt Him to the highest place, give Him a name above every name and give Him even greater glory than He had with Him from before the creation of the world.

What Jesus had before with the Father as His right would now be given back to Him in greater measure as His reward. We have a tiny inkling of that glory as Jesus revealed the Father’s mercy poured out on undeserving sinners through His life and death. It was only because mankind rebelled against God, spurned His love and disobeyed His instructions that God was able to reveal the greatness of His love and the depth of His mercy.

Why was Jesus so eager to receive back the glory He had with the Father and to reveal it to His disciples? The answer is simple. The more we gaze at His glory, the more we are being transformed into His image.

And we, who with unveiled faces, all reflect (or contemplate) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3: 18)

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.