Monthly Archives: September 2021

HARD LESSONS ARE THE BEST LESSONS

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HARD LESSONS ARE THE BEST LESSONS

“Simon Peter asked Him,’ Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus replied, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.’ Peter asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Then Jesus answered, ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.'” John 13:36-38 NIV.

Before we come down heavily on Peter for denying Jesus, let’s stop a minute and ask a few questions.  Firstly, was he sincere? I do believe that he could not have been more sincere in his expression of loyalty to Jesus than at that moment. After all, had he not stuck with Him through thick and thin? There were many occasions when he could have disowned him and walked away, but he didn’t…

What about the times when Jesus had a go at the Pharisees, calling them whited sepulchres, liars, murderers and children of the devil? The disciples must have cringed and felt like crawling into the nearest hole. What of the very recent incident in the temple when He caused a huge furore by driving the merchants and money-changers out of the temple court, upsetting the money changers’ tables and sending the animals fleeing in all directions? Don’t you think the disciples wanted to disown Him at that moment?

As for their visit to Caesarea Philippi, the “red light district” of Israel! Jesus deliberately took His group of conservative Jewish men to a place where they were confronted with a spectacle too disgusting for words; the devotees of Pan, the goat god, shamelessly and publicly having intercourse with goats as part of their religious ritual! What was He thinking?

Yet Peter and his fellow disciples stayed with Him regardless…. No other rabbi in Israel had ever said and done the outrageous things Jesus did as part of the training He put His disciples through. Having come this far, Peter had no intention of deserting Him now.

Secondly, did Peter believe at that moment that he had the courage to endure whatever he had to? I’m sure he did. He wasn’t afraid to take risks. He was always the first one to respond to Jesus, no matter what the circumstances. Didn’t he go fishing in broad daylight at Jesus’ instruction, knowing from a seasoned fisherman’s point of view that it was a useless waste of time? Didn’t he get out of the boat and walk on the stormy lake, knowing full well that he risked drowning? As long as Jesus was close by, he knew he was safe.

Thirdly, did Peter really know himself? No, he didn’t! That was the whole point of Jesus’ warning. Peter was confident but unfortunately, he was over-confident. He did not know the limit of his ability to stand up under testing. In spite of his reassurance that he was willing to give his life for Jesus, he did not yet know that something would paralyse him when it came to the crunch — fear! Fear would crush his resolve and expose him as a cursing coward.

In the moment of truth, Peter would become who he really was. As long as circumstances were favourable and he was not exposed to any risks when Jesus was not there to rescue him, he thought he was as brave as a lion! He had to learn the very hard and unforgettable lesson that without Jesus, he could do nothing.

For Peter, when he looked back, this moment of denial would be a moment of grace. He would take Jesus’ warning with a pinch of salt because he didn’t really believe Him and because he thought he knew himself. His greatest sorrow and deepest regret would be that he had ignored Jesus’ words and trusted in himself, but that was part of God’s grace because the pain was so deep that he would not walk that way again.

Some of our hardest lessons are learned when we think we are stronger than we are but, just as Jesus knew what was coming for Peter, He knows us. We can never disappoint Him because He already knows what will happen before we fall. Why does He not intervene? He knows that we need these lessons to discover how incapable we are of doing anything without Him so that we realize how much we need Him.

It’s as simple as that!

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.

DYNAMITE IN A SMALL PACKAGE

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DYNAMITE IN A SMALL PACKAGE

“When he was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and, just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now. Where I am going you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'” John 13:31-35 NIV.

Was Jesus talking to Himself at that moment? Is almost sounds like it, doesn’t it?

As soon as Judas was out of the picture, He breathed a sigh of relief, With Judas gone, the tension in the room lifted. He could now concentrate on what was most important to Him, putting His Father’s glory on display during the coming hours of His passion. It was up to Him to live through those hours right to His last breath in the disposition of the Father — gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness, forgiving sin…

He had another important task to fulfil. This was the moment when He would gather up all the teachings of the Old Covenant into one pithy but powerful instruction couched in three words — “Love one another!” Paul caught the spirit of Jesus’ words when he wrote, “Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law…Love does no harm to his neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law.” Romans 13:8; 10 NIV.

There is a positive and negative side to this commandment which Paul sums up in Romans 13. There is no sentimentality in this kind of loving, just practical involvement with others. Here is a simple definition of this love — meeting the needs of others at one’s own expense. Isn’t that what Jesus did? The other side is simply refraining from doing anything that would hurt another person.

There is much discussion, preaching and teaching about what believers in Jesus are supposed to do with the law. It is subdivided into moral law and ceremonial law. Some say that we are obliged to keep the moral law but not the ceremonial law. Some groups teach and practise strict adherence to parts of the ceremonial law, like the dress code and the food laws. Others insist that, because we are under grace, the law does not apply to us at all.

Firstly, we must ask, “Why did God give His people the law in the first place?” For two reasons: To show them what He was like, and to show them how impossible it was to live up to His perfect standards. Jesus was a perfect human being and He perfectly kept the law. We cannot possibly hope to live like He did, perfectly loving God and His neighbour.

Secondly, if God knew that we could never reach His standard, did He do away with the standard? No way! What did He do with the law? He placed it and all our debt to the broken law on Jesus at the cross. Jesus gave us a new commandment which sums up everything He requires of us in three words — LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now instead of rummaging through the Ten Commandments and all 613 laws of the Old Covenant to find which one would suit the circumstance, we can turn to the Holy Spirit who is in us and ask, “How do I love in this situation?” He not only shows us how but gives us the power to do it.

“And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who had been given to us.” Romans 5: 5 NIV.

Is Jesus command impossible to keep? Not if we love Him. “’If you love me, keep my commands.'” John 14:15 NIV.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”1 John 4:10, 11 NIV.

God’s love for us is the root, our love for Him and one another the fruit of that love, If we abide in Him, His love flows freely through us to others by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.

This is dynamite in a very small package!

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.

HIS LAST CHANCE

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HIS LAST CHANCE

“As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So, Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do quickly.’ But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread he went out, and it was night.” John 13:17-30 NIV.

What was it about that little piece of bread that tipped Judas over the edge? Jesus’ gesture was packed with meaning.

It was Middle Eastern custom for the two most honoured guests to sit on the right and left of the host. John would have been seated on Jesus’ right because he described himself as leaning on Jesus; resting on his left elbow and reclining on Jesus, leaving his right arm free to eat his meal. Judas was probably reclining on Jesus’ left, the other place of honour, because Jesus would have dipped the morsel of bread into the common bowl of sauce and put it in Judas’ mouth. This gesture was the host’s way of expressing his greatest love and esteem for one of the guests at the table.

Why did Jesus choose Judas? Why not Peter; or John or one of the others? Did He love one disciple more than the others? I think Judas did not feel a part of the group. His guilty conscience alienated him from Jesus and from the other disciples. John knew that he was a thief; most probably so did the others. Jesus must surely have been aware of his dishonesty. 

Was Jesus being hypocritical or did He have an ulterior motive? Not likely because it would have been completely out of character for Him to act underhandedly. I believe that in true “Jesus” style, He was reassuring Judas of His love no matter what he was planning to do, and giving him an opportunity to change his mind, even at the last minute. In spite of the prophecies about him, they were not set in stone. 

Judas was as much a son as all the others in spite of his behaviour. It was up to him to come clean, confess his sinful attitude and behaviour, and become one of them again. By giving him the sop, Jesus was offering him the opportunity to reconnect with Him and with his fellow disciples.  How did Judas read the gesture? Would his hard heart be melted by it or hardened into a resolve to carry out his plan?

Jesus must have watched Judas’ face as He deliberately placed the bread in his mouth. There is no evidence that Judas refused it. This makes his action even more heinous. In that moment when he received Jesus’ act of pure love in spite of what he was planning to do, Satan clinched the deal by taking over his mind and his body. Judas had dabbled in the thoughts of the demonic realm for too long to back-pedal. In that final instant, Satan gave him no choice. He had him and he would not allow him to back out. The iron doors of his heard clanged shut and Satan was inside.

Jesus read the expression on his face – cold, hard and empty. ‘Okay, Judas, you’ve made your decision. Now get on and do it!’ Judas clearly read the grief in Jesus’ voice but he felt nothing. Pure love and pure hatred had collided at the table and Judas has chosen to side with hatred. His action would set in motion a chain of events in which the Son of God would receive and absorb in His own body the worst that humans could do to a fellow human.

Was Judas caught in a web of destiny from which he could not escape? Was he predestined to be a traitor? If that were so, God would be responsible for his sin. No, Judas had chosen his path and had walked on it from the first moments when he stepped off the trail to go his own way and make his own rules. Satan gently lured him on until he had him in his grip and could simply step in and take over.

This should be a warning to us to beware of those first thoughts of rebellion and disobedience. Like Judas, we might be followers of Jesus but that does not immunise us against the devil’s deception. When we foolishly take the first steps on the wrong path, we have no idea where those steps will take us. Our only safeguard is to stay close to our Master and to check every inclination of our hearts against the infallible truth of His Word.

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.

JESUS GRIEVES

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JESUS GRIEVES

“After He had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which one of them He meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to Him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask Him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’

“Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot…'” John 13:21-26 NIV.

Why was Jesus troubled in spirit? Was He thinking about all the suffering He was about to endure because of Judas’ treachery? I hardly think so because it did not fit with His disposition.

He was supremely un-preoccupied with Himself. It was either His Father and the kingdom of God or people in need that took His attention. Even on the occasion when He had taken His disciples to a deserted place so that He could spend time with them away from the people who were always clamouring for His attention, He was not annoyed when they arrived en mass to spoil their day. Instead, His heart went out to them in compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

On His way to the cross, the women en route were wailing because of Him. In the midst of His weakness and pain He turned to them and said, “Don’t weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children.’ He was more concerned about the suffering that was coming upon them when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem than He was for Himself.

As formidable as the next few hours were going to be, Jesus was grieved because of what Judas was bringing upon himself by his choice to sell Him out for a few pieces of silver. Psalm 7:11 (KJV) says, “God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day.”

Why is God angry? There are several reasons why He is angry; the wicked have disregarded and trampled His glory under foot; they have ignored His laws and set up their own rules; they have worshipped themselves as gods; but most of all they have wasted their potential to become what God created them to be — sons of the Most High God.

God is love. His passionate love for everything He has created is the outflow of who He is. He created the universe to be the home of the creatures He had made in His own image and placed them on the earth, a tiny planet spinning in the vastness of space in a cosmos held together by His powerful word so that He could lavish His love on us. To live as we like without any regard for the God whose goodness is towards us, is the worst possible insult we can throw at Him.

Judas could have enjoyed all the bounty of God’s love, revealed to Him in Jesus whom he had followed for three and half years, had he only submitted his heart to Him instead of choosing his own way. But Judas judged himself by choosing his way. His “reward” was pathetically miniscule and short-lived because he judged himself unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness…. and Jesus grieved because He knew what could have been.

I think Jesus was disturbed because of Judas’ fall for the devil’s deception. Satan lured him with the reward of a few pieces of silver or the hope of a place in an earthly government under Jesus, free from Roman oppression, but what was that compared with a conscience free from guilt and a place of authority in God’s eternal kingdom?

How He must grieve over us when we exchange the vast treasure of what He has promised us if we follow Him for the miserable trinkets of the world that are as transient as this life. Yes, we choose our own reward, be it a place in God’s eternal kingdom with Christ on His throne, or an eternity of loss and regret because we refused to believe the truth and fell for the devil’s deception because we thought we knew better.

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.

THE ULTIMATE REWARD

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THE ULTIMATE REWARD

“‘I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

“I am telling you now before it happens so that, when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.'” John 13:18-20 NIV.

Amazing, isn’t it, how often the experience of Jesus paralleled that of His ancestor, David! He often quoted David’s words, or the gospel writers quoted David to show how accurately Jesus fulfilled Messianic prophecy. Jesus even cried out in David’s words, in the anguish of His abandonment on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Psalm 41 is one of the psalms which David possibly wrote at some time during the years of his flight from Saul’s murderous jealousy; or perhaps in his reign after a time of serious illness he describes how God sustained him in his weakness and vulnerability in spite of his enemies’ wish that he would die. Even the one closest to him had turned against him and he felt keenly the pain of betrayal.

In a time of intimate fellowship and a tender moment with His disciples before He left them. Jesus was face-to-face with His betrayer. He wanted Judas to know that He knew what he was about to do. It was a silent plea for Judas to think again. He was also warning the other eleven of what was soon to happen so that they would realize who He was when it happened.

He knew that His lesson on humility and loving service would be lost on Judas who was already so hardened against Jesus and his fellow disciples that the words of Jesus fell on the hard soil of his heart, just like the parable Jesus had told about the sower and the seed. There were important things Jesus needed to tell His disciples before He left them but they would be wasted on the traitor. He hinted at the fact that Judas was no longer included in the company of His followers.

One thing Judas needed to hear, even if it was for the last time, that there is an inseparable union between a disciple, his Master and the Father. The mission Judas was about to embark on was not one on which he was sent by his erstwhile Master. By his own choice, that connection had been broken and Judas was on his own, and would have to face the music of his actions alone.

On the other hand, those who went at the bidding of their Master showed that they enjoyed the oneness with the Master and the Father which Jesus had already proved by His obedience to the Father’s will. To accept and submit to Jesus’ authority was to submit to the authority of the Father. Now Jesus takes it a step further, to accept the one whom Jesus sends is the same as accepting Him, and to accept Him is to accept the one who sent Him.

This puts the follower of Jesus in a very secure position. Although the Father required of Jesus obedience that went as far as giving Himself as a sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world, Jesus knew that His obedience would not end there. He was destined for a position in the universe higher than any other. In the same way, although He may call His followers to deprivation and suffering in this life, He has guaranteed us eternal life because He rose from the dead and will never die again.

How tragic that Judas was willing to forfeit this glorious destiny for a reason only he knew. Was he trying to force Jesus to make a move against the Romans and fufill his and the disciples’ dreams of a kingdom free from Roman oppression? Was he only motivated by greed and the bag of silver the religious hierarchy had offered him for handing Jesus over to them?

Whatever Judas’ motive for betraying His Master, it was transient like the world he loved. It could never match the grandeur of the future prepared for those who faithfully follow the Messiah. There may be trials to endure but, as the apostle Paul said, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ” 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18 NIV.

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.