Monthly Archives: May 2022

THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALED

Christian Life, ,

THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALED

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 1 John 14:16-18

Except for the few times Jesus mentioned the source of His power, His disciples did not know this Spirit whom He said was coming. Jesus spent the final precious hours before He was torn from them to fill them in on the Person who would take His place, both with them and in them. He told the disciples, in what we call the “Upper Room Discourse”, everything they needed to know about the Holy Spirit so that they would learn to walk with Him as they had walked with Jesus for three years.

  1. Jesus’s “other” self

So close and one were Jesus and the Holy Spirit that He could call Him His “other self”. He could say with confidence:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14: 18)

How could He come to them since He had told them that He was going away? After His resurrection, He was only around for forty days before He left them for good. Ah, but He had another “self”, the Holy Spirit who would take up residence within them forever. The Spirit would not come and go as Jesus had done. He would not be confined to a geographical location as Jesus was. He was spirit, not flesh and blood, and would soon come upon them to be fused with their spirits in an unbreakable union. They would be His temple, individually and together. He would make real the name that was given to Jesus prophetically in the Tanakh – Emmanuel – God with us.

The Holy Spirit withdrew from fallen man in the beginning because He could not dwell with sin. Jesus atoned for and removed sin forever and promised that He would send the Holy Spirit from the Father to be in them permanently once again. Everything that Jesus was to them, He would be.

  • The “Paracletos”

Jesus promised that “another Parakletos” was coming – one who would do the same things He had done while He was with them. The word parakletos comes from two Greek words – para, meaning “alongside” as in the word “parallel” – and kaleo, meaning “to call”. “Parakletos” is in the passive voice – “one who is called alongside”.

Who was this Parakletos and what would He do? Firstly, He was “another Parakletos”, implying that Jesus was the first Parakletos. Therefore, He would take Jesus’s place and do everything Jesus did. To His disciples, Jesus was their rabbi and their model. He was their protector and provider. He was their teacher and mentor.

This “another Parakletos” was called alongside them to support them in their human weakness. He would help them when they tottered under the weight of their burdens by carrying the burdens with them. He would be there to enable them to walk “upright” on their journey to the Father.

  • The Spirit of Truth

Jesus described the Parakletos as the Spirit of truth. He was not just any spirit. He was the Spirit of truth. Jesus identified Himself as the “truth”. Pilate asked rather cynically. “What is truth?” and did not even stay long enough to hear His answer. What would Jesus have said to Pilate? Would He have defined truth in abstract terms? No. As a true Hebrew, Jesus would have simply said, “Look at me. I am the truth.” In other words, everything He was, everything He said and everything He did was the truth.

Now He said to His disciples, “Just as you watched me and saw truth in action, the Holy Spirit will be in you to teach you how to be truth in action.” If they listened to Him as they had listened to Jesus, they would be in no doubt at all about who and what the truth was.

  • The Spirit of Jesus

But how would they be able to differentiate between the voice of the Holy Spirit in them and every other voice that clamoured to be heard? Jesus gave them a simple test.

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14: 25-26)

I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear now. But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. (John 16: 12-14)

What the Holy Spirit says and does is always in perfect harmony with what Jesus said and did. The test is simple and backed up by a powerful witness:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14: 27)

How would they know they were on the right track? Jesus promised that He would replace their insecurity with the same confirmation that powered Him – peace. Peace in the heart always follows truth in the mind. Emotional disturbance is God’s warning sign that there are lies in the mind that contradict what God has said. Jesus assured His disciples that, if they followed the Holy Spirit who would lead them into the truth embodied in Him and His word, His supernatural peace would confirm that they were in the truth.

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.

JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

“…How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38

Jesus and the Holy Spirit were inseparable. They were “joined at the hip”. For the thirty-three years that He was on earth, Jesus was the Holy Spirit’s assignment. The Holy Spirit was there, in the secret places of Mary’s body, supervising the selection of the ovum that was to become the infant Jesus. He was there, without the agency of a human father, energising the ovum to begin its mysterious journey from a single cell to a unique, complex human being who was both God and man.

He was there, the unseen companion of the child Jesus through His growing-up years. He was there at His baptism, descending on Him in visible form and remaining on Him to accompany and empower Him on His long and tortuous road to the cross. He was there during those forty days of relentless harassment by the arch enemy of God in the wilderness, watching, listening, and prompting Him with wisdom and the Word.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4: 1)

He was there when Jesus encountered every kind of suffering in the people around Him. He was there to pour power through the Son of God, releasing the captives, healing broken hearts and bodies, exchanging sorrow for joy, and raising the dead to life.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (Luke 4: 18-19)

He was there to fulfil the matchless prophecy about Messiah recorded by Isaiah:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and He will delight in the fear of the LORD. (Isa. 11: 1-3a)

This is another one of those chiasms which appear all over the Scriptures. Did you recognise it?

A¹ The Spirit of wisdom

    B² And of understanding

       C³ The Spirit of counsel

  • (The Servant of Yahweh)

       C³ The Spirit of power

   B². The Spirit of knowledge

A¹. And of the fear of the Lord

The centre point in this chiasm is not stated. The ancient rabbis called the focal point – D – the Servant of Yahweh. If one turns this chiasm on its side, it resembles a menorah, the seven-branched candlestick that gave light to the Holy Place in the tabernacle. How symbolic of Messiah – filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit, the Light of the World and coming to earth as the Suffering Servant of the Lord!

The powerful work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus was the witness that the kingdom of God had come. At no time did Jesus use His divine power to do the works of God. It was the Spirit’s anointing that confronted the demonic intruders and sent them packing. The religious leaders accused Jesus of being in league with the devil. “How can that be possible?” He retorted. “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”

But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Matt. 12:28)

The Holy Spirit was there in those terrible hours when all hell broke loose against Jesus, piling on Him every vicious and heinous thing that human beings could do to an innocent man. He was there when Jesus died. It was through Him that Jesus offered Himself up to the Father as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death to serve the living God. (Heb. 9: 14)

He was there in the gloom of the tomb, awaiting the moment when He would breathe life into the lifeless body of the Son of God as He did into the clay form of the first man, Adam. The blast of His breath awakened Jesus and He rose from death, the transformed, never-to-die-again, eternal Son of God.

(He), through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 1: 4)

What made this rabbi unique?

Jesus did not ape the sages who went before Him, or His contemporaries, by simply piling His opinions on top of theirs, increasing the already top-heavy load on the common people and, as He said to the Pharisees, making them

Twice the son of hell (gehenna) as you are. (Matt. 23: 15)

Unlike any rabbi before or after Him, this rabbi not only reflected the truth and the spirit of Torah in His teaching as He received it from the Father, but He also supplied the power to His disciples to be and to do what He expected of them. He promised that the same Holy Spirit who had partnered with Him throughout His earthly life would come upon them in power and enable them to be what He was and to do what He did.

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.

JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES’ FUTURE

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JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES’ FUTURE

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. Matthew 24:9

Just as much as He prepared them to be His witnesses whenever and wherever the opportunity presented, Jesus also made sure that His disciples were well prepared for what lay ahead for them as loyal followers. Life for them would not be a bed of roses. Association with Him meant danger and possible death because they were not above their Master. As He was, so were they in the world.

Jesus had much to say about His disciples’ future, again not to satisfy their curiosity but to enable them to face it with the right attitude and the right equipment. Unlike our many prophecy boffins who are passionate about setting up time-lines, Jesus did not give them a time-table so that they could tick off events as they happened, but He gave them signs which they would be able to recognise, to know that His return was going to happen.

Our prophecy teachers draw charts, make predictions and presumptuous interpretations and love to place us somewhere… here… on the chart…. Jesus, on the other hand, gave guidelines to His disciples so that they would always be ready, no matter when He comes. He did not give them any opportunity to sail as close to the wind as possible. Life was about being a mirror of their rabbi so that they would always represent Him to the world around them, no matter what, when or where.

Jesus told them many things about their immediate future. For them it was not a rosy picture! They would share the same hatred and rejection that He experienced because they were His followers. They had to understand that humans were at enmity with God. Anyone who stood on God’s side would share the treatment He got – therefore it should not take them by surprise. How were they to respond?

Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (Matt. 10: 17-20)

Whatever Jesus had to say about the future of the individual disciple, or all of His disciples was intended to prepare them so that, when it happened, they would know exactly how to handle each situation. He was sending them out like lambs among wolves, but they would have a divine companion who was not only with them but in them. The Holy Spirit in them would equip them with the truth. Like Jesus, they were to use the weapon of the Word with which to fight. The outcome was not their responsibility. If people refused to believe the truth, they would have to face the consequences of their choices.

Jesus not only equipped them with information about the future so that they would know what to expect and how to respond in times of adversity; He also warned them against developing wrong attitudes to the apparent delay of His return.

The people in Noah’s day refused to believe Noah’s warning that the flood was coming. They continued to live their God-denying lives until the moment when the rain fell, and they were swept away in the flood. Jesus’s return will be as unexpected as that!

The homeowner has no idea that a thief is about to break into his house. Had he known, he would have kept watch to protect his possessions. The household servant who gets tired of waiting for the master’s return begins to carouse and to abuse his fellow servants. When the master returns unexpectedly and finds the household in disarray and the duties left undone, the head steward will be punished for his neglect and abuse.

The point of these stories was to warn His disciples not to fall into the trap of neglect. For them it was less important to know when Jesus was returning than to know that He was coming back. It was not about doing the right thing when He returned as it was about being faithful all the time, regardless of when He returned. This is the heart of a true servant – not putting on an act for the Master to see but being faithful to the task whether He is there or not. It was this attitude that would safeguard His disciples against being caught off guard.

As followers of Jesus, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that it does not matter how we live if we believe in Jesus. We must also not think, like some of the people of the world think, that we can live as we like until the last minute and then put things right with God. If we have followed through this series, we have learned that being a disciple of Jesus means that we  walk in the truth of God’s Word which is the only way to the Father. When we choose our own way, we get lost in the wilderness and will die in the desert without the sustenance of God’s life in us.

How important it is for us to stay on the path by following the voice of our Shepherd! This is the only guarantee that we shall reach our destination and enjoy the life of God forever in His eternal kingdom.

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.

GREED – THE SENTENCE OF DEATH

Christian Life, ,

GREED – THE SENTENCE OF DEATH

Jesus told His disciples three stories to illustrate what God thinks of and how He will treat those who consume their wealth on themselves and ignore the needs of others, and to warn His disciples against doing what these people did.

  1. The parable of the rich fool – the danger of hoarding

The first warning comes in the form of a parable about a prosperous farmer whose ground produced such an abundant crop that he had no room to store it all. Instead of sharing his wealth with the needy, he decided to hoard his harvest so that he would not have to work hard for years to come. He did not think of getting in on God’s current of supply by giving to others; he chose to keep it all to himself so that he could take it easy.

God called him a fool – one who knew what the right thing was but didn’t do it. His decision to hoard cost him his life, and he could take nothing with him. No treasure in heaven for him and no heart in heaven because his heart was in the barns with his grain.

This was not only his fate but will also be the fate of those who are not “rich towards God.” God considers generosity towards others the same as being rich towards Himself.

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’ (Matt. 25: 40)

In this instance, as with the other two parables, it is not so much that the farmer was selfish, but that selfishness was a way of life. Therefore, his very reaction to his newly acquired prosperity was an indication that he was not walking in the way of Yahweh. He was off in the wilderness, making his own rules and living his own way. The outcome was inevitable for him – destruction.

  • The parable of the rich man and Lazarus – the danger of indifference

First of all, let me remind you again that good works cannot save us. We are saved from our sin by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus – bottom line. However, as we have already emphasised, generosity is the overflow of a heart that understands the measure of God’s mercy and reciprocates by showing mercy to others.

Jesus’s second warning comes in a series of stories He told the Pharisees who nit-picked about His hobnobbing with the down-and-outs of society. His parables highlighted how out-of-line their attitude of holier-than-thou was – parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (Luke 15: 1-32) and the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31).

The latter story was a warning to the people, and especially to the Pharisees who enjoyed their bounty with no thought for the forgotten people who were right on their doorstep. The rich man did not receive a rap over the knuckles for ignoring Lazarus. He landed in the torment of the fire and there was no escape. To make his torment even worse, he had to watch Lazarus, the forgotten beggar, now enjoying the bounty and comfort of heaven while he could not escape the memory of his neglect.

As with the first parable, this story illustrates the fact that the rich man was on the wrong path. Had he been walking in God’s way, he would have provided for the beggar, not neglected him. because Lazarus’ presence would have been a landmark on his journey to Zion.

  • The parable of the sheep and the goats – the danger of walking on the wrong path

The setting of this story is the end of the age – “when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him” (Matt. 25: 31). This is about national and individual judgment. All the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people, one by one, into two categories – righteous and unrighteous, sheep and goats.

Let’s go back for a moment, to the Hebraic understanding of “righteous” and “unrighteous”. This is much more than just about those who did good deeds and those who did not. This is about the righteous – the tsadiyq, i.e.,those who stay on the path, and the unrighteous – the rasha, i.e., those who have wandered off the path, chosen to go their own way and are in danger of dying in the wilderness.

This is much more than about random acts of kindness or neglect. This is about a way of life that depends on where a person is walking. If we are on the path, walking in the way of Yahweh according to the light of His word, then the landmarks we encounter on the way, the needy people who are Jesus in disguise, give us opportunity to show mercy as we steadily walk the path towards Zion. Even if we do not recognise the face of Jesus in them, we minister to them anyway because it is a way of life.

The ones who have gone off the path and have chosen to live their own way, are oblivious of the needy people around them and they miss Jesus in them because they are far too concerned about keeping themselves alive.  

The issue on Judgment Day will be: On which path were you walking? If you were on the way of Yahweh, you would have ministered to the needy as your way of life because you walked on the path lit by God’s Word. Whether you knew it or not, you would have been ministering to Jesus every time you fed or clothed someone or took care of the sick or the prisoner. This would be the commendation from the King on that day. “You had the true spirit of Torah because you showed mercy.”  You ministered to Jesus even though you did not recognise His face in the faces of those to whom you showed mercy.

Those who chose to walk the wrong path would find, in the end that their destination was not what they expected. The King would not accept the excuse that they did not know it was He they were neglecting when they ignored the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Their destination was the logical end of their chosen way of life.

Conclusion

As we journey together, we are learning, step by step, that everything Jesus was and taught points to the weightiest part of God’s character. Is it any wonder then that David concluded, at the end of his most famous psalm – Psalm 23 – that God’s goodness and mercy would follow him, like two faithful dogs, for the rest of his life, until he reached his destination – Father’s house – where he would make his home forever? That’s who God is.

The prophet Micah realised that what God desires most from His people is not rivers of blood or rivers of oil or even the sacrifice of their children.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic. 6: 8)

For God, how we handle our money and possessions is the crucial test of our love – God or Mammon, because whom we love we will serve.

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.

GENEROSITY – THE MEASURE OF ETERNAL REWARDS

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GENEROSITY – THE MEASURE OF ETERNAL REWARDS

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. (2 Cor. 9: 13-14)

It’s not only important that we give. It’s also about why we give.

God condemns giving to be honoured for our sake but giving to honour God brings glory to Him and gives others encouragement to follow suit.

Our generosity should be based squarely on who God is. We give because He has freely given to us.

Freely you have received; freely give. (Matt. 10: 8b)

When we give out of the motivation of mercy, God promises to meet all our needs and the light of our good works will reflect on Him.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise you Father in heaven. (Matt. 5: 14)

Jesus took the issue of generosity to an even deeper level than giving simply because we are obliged to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Everything we do for others reflects how much we value God’s mercy towards us. Generosity is not about giving to others because we are being benevolent towards them, or even because of their need. Generosity is our duty because God is generous towards us. Withholding our money and possessions when we can meet the needs of others, from God’s perspective, is the same as stealing.

Jesus told a parable to illustrate what our duty is all about.

Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Would you say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would you rather not say ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would you thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ (Luke 17: 7-10)

Why is it that we want accolades from people and rewards from God when we do what is expected of us? We treat God as though He owes us something because we have obeyed Him! Generosity is not about earning Brownie points. It’s about showing how deeply we value God’s mercy to us that He has rescued us from our self-destructive greed and changed our hearts towards Him and towards the people around us. We show it by the way we treat people who have wronged us or who are less fortunate than we are.

Jesus taught something about stewardship which we either tend not to notice or to ignore because it seems to out of keeping with who He is.

Jesus told the story about a manager who was about to be fired for mismanaging his master’s finances (Luke 16: 1-9). The man quickly bought favour from the master’s debtors by reducing their debts. When the master found out what he had done, instead of condemning him, he commended him for his shrewdness. Jesus ended His story with a very puzzling comment. What do you make of this Scripture?

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16: 9)

First, we need to be careful about spiritualising this parable. The story is about a dishonest man who was generous with his master’s money to win friends so that, when he no longer had a job, they would be generous to him. Jesus did not commend his dishonesty but the principle – generosity gains you favour with people. 

His next few comments open the meaning even more.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:10-12)

The point of the parable is that the manager was the steward of his master’s property. He had a greater obligation to be trustworthy with what was not his than with what was his own, because he was accountable to his master for what he did with it.

In the same way, we are stewards of what God has given to us and we are accountable to Him for the way we use it. He has instructed us how to apportion it so that we care for those in our circle of responsibility before we take care of our own needs. When we are faithful to carry out our Master’s instructions and use what He has given us in obedience to Him, only then can He give us greater responsibility in the life to come.

Does it shock or surprise you to realise that the level of authority you will have in God’s eternal kingdom will depend on the way you handle your money and possessions in this life? This is how seriously Jesus took the issue of money and why He had so much to say about it.

This leads me to the final point about the way a disciple uses his resources. There are serious consequences for greed, selfishness and disregard for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien.

(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.