Monthly Archives: June 2021

Dear Friends and Family of Ebenezer
Following several requests regarding our position on the Covid-19 vaccine, the elders have the following response:

  1. Vaccines play a useful role in the medical arsenal against a variety of diseases.
  2. Millions around the world have already been vaccinated.
  3. Serious side effects are being reported though this number is insignificantly small.
  4. It is a fact that the Covid-19 vaccines are still in a trial phase throughout the world and long term effects will only be known in the long term.
  5. We see no biblical reason to not have the vaccine and thus encourage each person individually to make this decision before the Holy Spirit without placing pressure on brothers and sisters who choose otherwise.
  6. We continue to trust God to lead, guide and strengthen us through these trying times.

Every blessing!
Paul and Elders

THE WAY TO THE FATHER

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THE WAY TO THE FATHER

“The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

“‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.” John 1:43-46 (NIV)

John gives us some interesting little exchanges between these would-be disciples and Jesus. The other gospel writers focus mainly on Peter and John, the ones who were always getting into scrapes or had the most to say. Andrew and Philip were the evangelists among them. Their first encounter with Jesus was enough to put them on the right track.

Andrew had already done his little bit by introducing his brother Peter to Jesus. What if he had kept his discovery to himself and left Peter out? Meeting this unique Man was something he couldn’t keep secret.

Philip was so convinced that he had come face-to-face with the one who fulfilled Old Testament prophecy that he unashamedly declared his faith to Nathanael. He brushed Nathanael’s scepticism aside by inviting him to come and see for himself. It was no use getting into a theological argument about it. An encounter with Jesus would be enough to convince Nathanael that He was the Messiah they were expecting.

“When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit,’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’” John 1:46-49.

Nathanael was blown away when he overheard Jesus’ comment about him. ‘Now this is a really good guy! He’s a true Israelite, not a fraud like some of them.’ How did Jesus know that? He’d never met Nathanael, let alone spent enough time with him to watch and listen to him so that He could sum up his character.

‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael demanded. ‘I know you, Nathanael. I knew you long before you came here today.’ Is this a subtle hint that Jesus was referring to His pre-incarnate existence with the Father when He knew Nathanael from before the foundation of the world? Where was Jesus when He saw him under the fig tree? Was He actually observing him? What prompted Him to discern in Nathanael a wholesome sincerity that pleased Him?

Nathanael’s conclusion was the only one he could come to. This man must be more than a man. There was no other explanation. His spontaneous outburst, ‘You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!’ may have been accurate, but he was yet to see and hear much more — marvellous truths and miracles that would flesh out the conviction that would bind him to Jesus and send him out to tell the world that Jesus is the Son of God.

“Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ Then He added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'” John 1: 47-51 (NIV)

The purpose of John’s gospel was to convince his readers that Jesus is the Son of God. “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life through His name,’ “John 20:31 (NIV). Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathanael found that out by meeting Jesus and spending time with Him.

The witness of brother and friend was not enough to convince them. When they spent time with Jesus over the next few years, they would see for themselves that it was He who would open the way between the unseen realm of the spirit and the earthly realm in which they lived and functioned. He was the link and the key to restoration of fellowship with the Father and personal access to the heavenly realm which sin had denied them.

There is no one other than Jesus who can take us to the Father.

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.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

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WHAT’S IN A NAME?

“Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas,’ (which, translated, is Peter).” John 1:40-42

Why did John go into so much detail in relating this little incident? Didn’t Jesus call these two brothers from fishing in the lake to follow Him? I cannot answer these questions because the Bible does not connect the dots. However, we get some interesting insights into the character of these two brothers.

Simon and Andrew were two very different characters. Andrew seems to have been the more serious one, a disciple of John and keen to find out about the Messiah John was introducing. Together with an unnamed disciple of John, he sought Jesus out and spent the day with Him. Convinced that He was the Messiah, Andrew hurried off to fetch his brother and bring him to meet Jesus.

Andrew was more contemplative and less vocal than Simon Peter. He was very much part of the Twelve but stayed in the background while Peter was the spokesman and always in the forefront of the action. Perhaps, after this introduction to Jesus, the brothers went back to their nets until Jesus was ready to call them.

Jesus’ response to Simon needs some comment. Why did Jesus change his name? In Hebrew thought, a name was a prophetic utterance of character. Babies were often named according to the circumstances of their birth, or as an expression of their prophetic destiny. John the Baptist was not named after his father, Zachariah, but called John which means “grace”. He would be ushering in, through Jesus, a new era of grace.

The name Simon means “to hear” or “reputation”. Jesus saw him, not as merely a hearer but as a rock – Petros in Greek, Cephas in Aramaic — one who would become steadfast and dependable. Isn’t this typical of the way God sees people, not as they are but as they would become through His grace?

There were important implications for Peter in this way of viewing and treating him. Jesus had to endure some questionable ideas and behaviour from this volatile and outspoken disciple. Peter often spoke first and thought afterwards. He said the first thing that came into his head. He had inflated ideas about himself and then crumbled when the test came.

Jesus knew Simon. He knew his character. He knew the way he was thinking and the way he would respond to Him, but He also knew what he would become. On the strength of His knowledge of Simon,, He renamed him Peter. On a few occasions, when Simon really exasperated Him, He would revert to his old name but, more often than not He addressed him Peter. Every time Jesus said “Simon”, He was rebuking him and reminding him of who he was — just a hearer. And that’s what he often proved to be. Simon suffered from “selective hearing” just like the rest of the disciples did!

However, it was not Jesus’ intention to tie him to his past. There was no value in reminding Peter who he was. In changing his name, Jesus was declaring His intention to change his character, and every time He called him Peter, He was drawing him towards his future.

There are valuable lessons for us in the example of Jesus. First of all, we learn that God is more interested in what we will be than in what we are.or what we have been He has called us His sons and daughters. Our role in life is to learn to become what we are — holy and beloved children of God. True faith is taking possession of what we already own. We are heirs of all that God has promised. It is our job to inherit His promises with faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12).

The second lesson is equally important. Just as Jesus saw Peter as a rock, so we must view people according to their potential rather than their actual. Instead of criticising them for what we don’t like about them, call them “Peter”. See them as holy and beloved. This attitude will push them towards their future instead of anchoring them to their past.

Release them from the past by cancelling their debt just as God has done, and they will be set free to become what God already sees them to be.

Will you do that? That’s what Jesus did.

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.

LION OR LAMB?

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LION OR LAMB?

“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’

“When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi (which means “Teacher”), ‘where are you staying?’ ‘Come,’ He replied, ‘and you will see.’ So. they went and saw where He was staying, and they spent that day with Him. It was about four in the afternoon.” John 1:35-39 (NIV).

Jesus rated John the Baptist the greatest of all the prophets. Why? He was not like Isaiah, for instance, who was a member of the royal family and whose long ministry lasted through the reigns of four kings. Isaiah was the prince of prophets in the Old Testament era. He had insights into the nature and ministry of the Messiah like no other prophet. After all, didn’t he write the most profound and sublime chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53? But John was greater.

Why was John such a great man? His ministry lasted no more than six months before he was incarcerated and then beheaded. I believe his greatness lay in the way he fulfilled his assignment. What was his assignment? He was to prepare the way for and introduce the Messiah to Israel. It was not so much what he did but the way he did it that marked him out as a truly great man.

In response to the constant squabbling of His disciples over who would be the greatest, Jesus taught them what true greatness was all about. They thought that greatness was about being the most important and the most visible person in the pecking order. James and John even asked for positions at His elbows in His kingdom! Imagine that!

Jesus was quick to point out that it was they, not He, who determined their greatness. If they were prepared to stoop down to the level of the lowliest in society, a little child, and lift him up, they would be truly great. Humility, and the behaviour it produces, is the way to greatness.

How did John the Baptist measure up to Jesus’ criterion?

When the Pharisees interrogated him, he was quick to point out that he was no more than a voice. He could have claimed to be Elijah come back from the dead, a great prophet who had ministered during a time of apostasy in Israel and who had done amazing miracles – stopping the rain, bringing on the rain and even raising a dead child on one occasion. Jesus identified John as the fulfilment of God’s promise to send Elijah ahead of the Messiah but John made no such claim for himself.

John had the heart of a servant. His fiery preaching was not to humiliate but to call people back to God. When they responded, he spent time encouraging and teaching them about God’s kingdom.

He never lost an opportunity to point people to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Whenever he saw Jesus, he declared, ‘There is God’s Lamb!’ John, unlike Jesus’ own disciples, had grasped the real mission of the Messiah.

The disciples were anticipating a stand-off with the Romans, their humiliating defeat and an era of glorious freedom for Israel under their new ruler, Jesus. The miracles He did confirmed their notion that He would restore Israel to the former glory it enjoyed under their great king, David, when everyone lived in safety and in plenty under his merciful and benevolent rule.

John, on the other hand, kept insisting that Jesus was God’s Lamb, not God’s Lion, at least not yet.  He was not in any way resentful when some of his disciples left him to follow Jesus. That was his purpose, to point people to Jesus and to introduce Him to the world as God’s sacrifice for sin.

John was faithful to his calling. He had no other purpose in life but to ensure that everyone he encountered knew who Jesus was. He was consumed with the passion to prepare the way so that, when Jesus arrived on the scene, people would recognise and follow Him.

This story speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

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.

SOAKED IN THE SPIRIT

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SOAKED IN THE SPIRIT

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man comes after me who has surpassed me because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.’

“Then John gave this testimony, ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.'” John 1:29-34 (NIV)

There you have it, straight from John’s mouth! It seems that John and Jesus, although they were relatives, had no connection with one another until this moment. Jesus grew up in the northern province of Galilee and John in Judea in the south. There were no motor vehicles to make the trip to Galilee or Judea easy for a family holiday, and besides that, John’s parents were elderly and probably not given to travelling around.

Naturally John knew about Jesus — had his father not prophesied over him at his birth that he would be a prophet and forerunner of the Messiah? Had he himself not leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when she came face to face with Mary, mother of the Messiah? Would his parents not have thoroughly prepared him for the day when he would begin his role as priest-prophet in Israel, the first after 400 years of prophetic silence?

What about the time he spent in the wilderness with God, soaking up the Word he had studied and memorised during his years of preparation to be a rabbi? Of course, John was a rabbi! Only rabbis had disciples — and John had his disciples as did Jesus. So crucial was John’s ministry to be that God would not have left his first meeting with Jesus to chance.

God gave John a clear sign to identify Jesus as the Messiah from among the many Jewish men he would encounter in his ministry. How would he recognise Him? Would He be wearing special clothing, have a distinguishing mark on His face or on His body, have a specific hair style, wear a name tag on His chest? Of course not! Nothing as silly as that!

The Spirit! The Holy Spirit was the key, but how would John know that the Holy Spirit was on Him? God told him that he would see the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus and that would be the sign that He was the Messiah. And it happened!

This was the first and only time in Scripture that the Holy Spirit was visible to human eyes. Matthew and Mark wrote that Jesus saw the Spirit descending while Luke simply related the fact that the Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove. That must have been visible to someone who either wrote it down or told Luke about it. ,

However, John saw the Holy Spirit and to him this was a sign of great significance because it showed him exactly who the Messiah was. From that moment, he used every opportunity to point out to those who followed him or came to listen to him that Jesus of Nazareth was God’s Chosen One. That was his job and he did it with great delight and with all his heart.

The apostle John, with hindsight after decades of contemplation, weighing up the evidence of John’s ministry and his years with Jesus, recognised in John the Baptist the qualities that made him a truly great prophet. After His baptism, when John the Baptist knew who the Messiah was by the visible presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon Him, he used every opportunity to point Him out to the people. ‘Look, there’s the One I keep telling you about, God’s Lamb who is to be sacrificed for the world’s sin.’

John was not intent on drawing attention to Jesus to make Him popular but to introduce Him in His true role as God’s sacrificial Lamb, not just for the sin of Israel alone but for the sin of the world. Jesus cautioned those who were healed not to speak about it because He did not want to be known as the miracle-worker who did things for people. That was only evidence of the real reason He came, to take away the sin of the world so that God’s wayward sons and daughters could return home to the Father.

The Holy Spirit was crucial to Jesus who laid aside His deity to live as a man, and He is crucial to every believer. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we are as vulnerable as the Israelites were who failed to keep the covenant God made with them at Sinai. It was Jesus’ death and resurrection that cleared the way for the Holy Spirit to saturate every believer just as He saturated Jesus and empowered Him to live as a true Son and to lay down His life for us.

Are you drenched in the Holy Spirit?

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.