Monthly Archives: June 2022

THE HEARTBEAT OF JESUS

Christian Life, ,

THE HEARTBEAT OF JESUS

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:4-5

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 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 that I myself may be in them.” John 17:24-26

Everything we have talked about so far leads us to one thing – the heartbeat of Jesus. We cannot leave this study without exploring as deeply as we can, what made Him tick. Who was this man, Jesus? What was His essence? If we are to get anywhere near to what He modelled, we must explore and discover Him.

How did Jesus relate to the Father?

Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus said:

I and the Father are one. (John 10: 30)

That was a very bold statement to make and one which His opponents obviously understood, judging by their reaction.

Again, the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’ (John 10: 31-33)

What was the oneness He was talking about?

 “When a Torah scribe asked Yeshua which was the foremost commandment in the Law of Moses, he quoted the Shema and its appended command:

The most important one is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. (Mark 12: 29-30)                                                                                  

“He added the command to love one’s neighbour found in Leviticus 19:18 as a corollary of loving God.

“The scribe responded by affirming Yeshua’s answer. Then he shifted focus to what seems to be a veiled reference to monotheism — perhaps to tempt Yeshua to make a statement about his identity. 

‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him.’ (v. 32)

“Yeshua didn’t take the bait. Instead, “When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely [about the command to love], he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’ ” (v. 34).

“Yeshua didn’t take this discussion of the Shema as an opportunity to affirm a theoretical compound unity in the Godhead or his place in it. Rather, he pointed the scribe to the extraordinary passage in Psalm 110:1, which speaks of a “Lord” who sits next to YHVH.

YHVH said to my LORD [Adon], Sit at my right hand, Until I put your enemies beneath your feet.

“Then Yeshua tested him with an exegetical question about that Lord’s identity: “How is it that the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? [Ps 110:1] David himself calls him ‘Lord’: and so, in what sense is he his son?” (Mark 12:35-37).

“The scribe and his theological comrades apparently could not, or dare not, answer Yeshua. Instead, “No one was able to answer him a word . . .” (Matt 22:46).

“Yeshua’s diverting attention from the Shema to Psalm 110:1 is a significant move. In fact, Psalm 110:1 is the most quoted Hebrew text in the NT, more than Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 53, or Psalm 22. He set the exegetical agenda for all his followers — and for Israel.

“In essence, Psalm 110:1 is the other Shema in Hebrew Scripture, the one that completes the revelation of the one God to his people and to all peoples on earth.

“Yeshua’s shift of emphasis could become a vision-changing lesson for modern interpreters to follow his example — instead of the example of their teachers and rabbis.

• Paul Sumner

“The statement by Yeshua, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), begs to be interpreted in light of this discussion of echad. In context, it seems clear that he was affirming a unity of purpose, will, and power with God the Father. His Father, who is “greater than all” (John 10: 29), had given him authority and divine power to keep all his sheep safe within the protected sphere of eternal life. He asked his Father that his disciples “may all be one, just as we are one” (John 17: 21-22). What all their unity may be, it does not mean they become united into the one Deity, as in New Age pantheistic religion.

Notwithstanding the accusations of the Jerusalem theologians that Yeshua, “being a man, [made himself] out to be God” (v. 33), he stood his ground that, as “Son of God” (v. 36), the Father was “in” him — not that he was God the Father.” (“Echad” in the Shema” by Paul Sumner).

(For a more thorough discussion of the meaning of echad, see Paul Sumner’s article:

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/hebrew/echad.html – retrieved in May 2015).

What did unity with the Father mean to Jesus?

Jesus’s claim to be one with the Father was not about equality with the Father as His right. He renounced that right when He became the Son and lived on earth in a Father/Son relationship. In fact, He delighted in His subordination to the Father. He made no bones about His submission and obedience to the Father, even to the point of embracing the Father’s plan that He become the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

It was this oneness, then, and all the ramifications of this unity expressed in Jesus’ submission and obedience to the Father that set the direction, purpose, and energy of His human life to the very end. The heartbeat of Jesus was His sonship in the truest sense of that relationship with Father.

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.

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER

Christian Life, ,

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5

Although Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit after His resurrection, (John 20: 22) and before He finally left them, He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Spirit in power. The powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit in the disciples was yet to come and would be twofold:

  1. He would be their internal power source, guiding and transforming them through the Word of Jesus and His sanctifying work.
  • He would be their power source for being Jesus’s witnesses in the world. Whatever equipment they needed for Him to convince the world through them who Jesus was, He would supply. Gifts, ministries, miracles, and supernatural protection were all in Him and from Him.

He said to them: ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. (Mark 16: 15-18)

When the Holy Spirit fell on the believers on the Day of Pentecost, His coming was the final and complete fulfilment of the prophetic word of the prophet Joel (Joel 2: 28-32) and Jesus’ promise to His disciples and for all His future followers all over the world. There is no need ever, for God’s people to beg Him to pour out His Spirit on us again. He has done it, once for all. The Holy Spirit has never left, and He never will.

Why is the church in many places so cold and ineffective? Is it not because God’s people have been led astray by false prophets or have wandered from the way of Yahweh because of sin and self-will? God’s call is for us to return – shuv – repent, change our minds and get back to His way and His Word. He has provided everything we need for godly living (2 Peter 1: 3-4). It is up to us to obey His Spirit, to believe and take hold of His “very great and precious promises” through which we participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

It is time for us to stop waiting for God to “rescue” us from our sinful and disobedient ways. He has done it all through Jesus and given us His Spirit to empower us to obey. Jesus said, “Follow me!” and “Remain in me.” He has given us all the equipment we need to do it. Now we must “just do it!”

Three words keep recurring in Jesus’s final words to His disciples before His death – love, joy, and peace. He not only spoke about love, joy, and peace but He also claimed ownership; “my” love, “my” joy and “my” peace. These qualities were very important to Him; they were the very energy supplied by the Holy Spirit that sustained Him through the rigours of His earthly life.

It was time to impart these same gifts as a legacy of love to His disciples before He died. He left no earthly inheritance, except His clothing for which the soldiers gambled, but what He gave His disciples was of far greater value than material goods. He promised to send them the Holy Spirit who would be in them. and would impart to them the love, the joy and the peace that energised and sustained Him through trials, tests, and suffering.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. (John 15: 9-10)

The secret of living in the love of Jesus is simple – just do what He tells you. The outcome is a life without fear. According to the Apostle John, it is the fear of punishment that cancels out our experience of God’s perfect love (1 John 4: 18). It is fear that steals our joy and our peace and makes us uncertain of the love of God. The Holy Spirit reassures us that we are the children of God (Rom. 8: 15-16).

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15: 11)

Jesus was a man of joy, anointed with the oil of joy above His companions (Heb. 1: 9). His steadfast vision of the goal enabled Him to rise above His circumstances, no matter how tough they were, secure in the Father’s love and unfazed by what happened around Him and to Him.

His promise of joy arises from their union with Him and obedience to His commands.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be compete. (John 15: 9-11)

As they lived in union with Jesus, experiencing His love and doing what He wanted them to do, His joy would sustain them through every trial because they would see, not the trouble they were experiencing but the result – just as He was sustained by His expectation of the glory that would follow the cross.

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

He left His disciples in no doubt about the inner energy of His life. As His followers, the Holy Spirit would nurture in them the very same strengths which carried Him through His deepest, darkest valleys if they remained in Him as branches in the vine. He left them His legacy, but it was up to them to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit so that the fruit of the Spirit would be nurtured in them.

Jesus’s disciples were to be no less dependent on the Holy Spirit than He was. The Spirit would be the same to them as He was to Jesus.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives in you. (Rom. 8:11)

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.

THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE SPIRIT OF CONVICTION

Christian Life, ,

THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE SPIRIT OF CONVICTION

When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt regarding sin and righteousness and judgment; in regard to sin because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16: 8-11)

The disciples had a powerful role to play in the spread of God’s kingdom on earth, but so did the Holy Spirit, and they were to be sure that they did not get their roles confused. The disciples’ role was to make disciples by identifying them with and initiating them, through mikvah – ceremonial washing – Into theFather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything Jesus had taught them. Nothing less, nothing more (Matt. 28: 18-20). This was what Jesus had authorised them to do.

The role of the Holy Spirit was the inward part. It was His work to convince three categories of beings who they were and how they were to respond.

This statement of Jesus will confuse us if we do not separate the three categories from one another and apply the appropriate truth to each. Who was He talking about?

  1. The world

These are the ones who do not believe in Him. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the world? No disciple can convince an unbeliever that he is a sinner. One can use logical arguments and even get him to admit that he is a sinner but that will not convince him to the extent that he will turn to the Lord and receive forgiveness of sins and new life. All he does is give intellectual assent to the truth, but that will not save him.

Only the Holy Spirit, working within the heart and conscience of the sinner, can bring life to a dead spirit by awakening him to the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done. The role of the Holy Spirit in the unbeliever is twofold; He convinces him of sin and points him to the Saviour.

  1. The believer

It is not the Holy Spirit’s primary role to convict believers of sin. We may think it is because we feel bad when we have sinned. We are tormented by guilt and keep on begging for forgiveness as though we need to be saved all over again. However, the Holy Spirit is not the accuser – that’s the devil’s role in the world.

Then of what does the Spirit convince the believer? Jesus said that He convinces believers of righteousness. Why do we need to be convinced of righteousness? Satan plays a pivotal role in the life of a believer. He is called “the accuser of the brethren”. He works very hard to get us to believe that the work of Jesus on the cross was not enough. Every time we wander off the path, he comes at us with all his guns blazing. “You see! You can’t be saved. Look what you’ve done? How can you call yourself a Christian when you did that?” Condemnation heaped upon condemnation! That’s who he is and that’s what he does.

The Holy Spirit comes to convince us that we have been made righteous by the gift of righteousness that comes through Jesus. It’s not what we have done for God. It’s what Jesus has done for us. His sacrifice took care of all our sin for all time. To lose our salvation, we would have to make a conscious choice to renounce and walk away from what He has done for us.

God expects us to fail from time to time because we still have the pull of the old nature in us. He does not stand over us with a whip to beat us when we fail. He calls us to live up to the righteousness He has already given us through Jesus. We are His sons and daughters. We are in the process of becoming replicas of Jesus, our rabbi, and His Son. We are both righteous in our standing with God and becoming righteous through the purifying work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Righteousness, not condemnation, is our motivation for living in obedience to Him.

  1. The devil

The devil hears only one word from the Holy Spirit – judgment! He hears no word of comfort – only condemnation 24/7. What he hears, he speaks. How can he hear anything else but judgment when he has sealed his own fate? How can he speak anything else but condemnation when that’s all he hears? He wants to take God’s people down with him, to unsettle them and drag them into doubt with his lies. He is a liar. Lies are the only language he knows.

Jesus had this to say to the religious leaders who claimed that God was their Father although they were planning to kill Him:

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

How important that we learn to identify the voices we are constantly hearing! The voice of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer is always positive – pointing to Jesus and speaking 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.