Monthly Archives: May 2023

JESUS IS HIS OWN PROOF

Bible Study, ,

JESUS IS HIS OWN PROOF

“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’…They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’” John 4:39,42 (NIV).

Once again John, the writer, drove home his point that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that his readers would believe through the record of those who believed through their encounters with Him. The Samaritan woman was the first-fruits of a harvest of villagers from Sychar. Her testimony startled them because she was so different from the woman who slunk out to draw water in the middle of the day because of her shame.

That was enough to alert the people that something radical had happened to her and aroused their curiosity to find out who had influenced her so dramatically. They rushed out to meet them man and, when they heard Him, they urged Him to extend His visit so that they could hear more of the words that quenched thirst and brought new life to their hearts.

Two days in Sychar with the Samaritan villagers was enough to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. It was her testimony that aroused their curiosity, but it was His words that convinced them that He was, indeed, the Messiah and awakened faith that brought peace and changed their lives as well.

This whole episode must have left the disciples reeling and made a deep impression on them. At least it did to John because it was one of the encounters he included in his story to awaken faith in his readers.

There are many aspects to this story that lifts Jesus above all other human beings. He was totally un-self-absorbed. His human weariness did not hinder Him from recognising the woman’s need and reaching out to her. He was not locked into the racial prejudice of His people. He saw her, not as a Samaritan woman but as a thirsty person who needed to know the truth.

He was not put off by her ignorance and her efforts to dodge her guilt. He kept bringing her back to the issues she had to face. He was not embarrassed to expose her sin, but He did it without judgment or condemnation. He simply stated the fact and left her to deal with it. The fact that He let her know that He knew without condemnation, cracked the nut open and she was won.

The change in her attitude and behaviour must have been so remarkable that her fellow villagers were deeply impressed. Surely it is the evidence of a changed life as much as the words we speak that reveal the truth about who Jesus is. Only Jesus can remove the guilt of our sin and give us the peace that comes from forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God.

YOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR LIGHT

Christian Life, ,

YOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR LIGHT

“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” Luke 8:16

According to Jesus, there is a fine line between parading your “righteousness” and allowing your righteousness to be seen. He had issues with the Pharisees because their “deeds of righteousness” were done to impress people. He hated and exposed that kind of thing because it was a cover-up for lives that were full of greed and wickedness.

On the other hand, a sincere and generous heart reflects God’s heart. What’s the point of covering up? Light is meant to expose and reveal and an open-hearted, generous response to people’s need points to attitude that is not eclipsed by selfishness and greed. God’s desire is that lives that are transformed by His grace and power should shine the light back on Him because He is the only source of all goodness.

Jesus urged His followers to become ministers of what they had received. Hearts that have been touched by him have changed their awareness from self to God and have absorbed God’s value system of kindness, generosity, and mercy. In the context of the parable of the seed and the soil, this implies that the fruit that comes from seed sown in fertile soil will be right in line with the nature of the seed. What kind of fruit would one expect to find if one plants the seed of God’s Word? Surely it would be fruit that reflects the nature of Jesus. He is the Living Word, according to the Hebrew way of thinking, a manifestation of the Father in another form.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” If His way of life, His “yoke”, reflected the life of God, the nature of the Father, His mercy and generosity, then the fruit that comes from the seed that falls into our own hearts should reflect the same attitude towards all people. And that is something that does not need to be paraded because it cannot be hidden.

This conflict between light and darkness, between generosity and greed, taking in all the aspects of unselfishness versus selfishness and all their consequences, is the core of the war that rages in the world. The fruit of every life can be traced back to what is in the heart. The presence of Jesus by His Spirit in a life provides the potential and the power to drive out the darkness by the light that He is, in the heart of the one who believes in Him.

On another occasion Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.” If we, as the children of God, are living lives that show the world who Jesus is, there will be no need to parade our generosity to impress people. It will be seen by our attitude and the way we treat those who are in need around us.

WHAT IS GREATNESS?

Christian Life, ,

WHAT IS GREATNESS?

An argument started among them as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside Him. Then He said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you – he is the greatest.” Luke 9:46-48

What was this “greatness” that the disciples were so diligently pursuing and so persistently quarrelling about? What did they want? Position, power, popularity? Were they associating greatness with an important place in this “kingdom” Jesus talked about? They certainly did not get their ideas of greatness from being with Him. He showed them what gentleness and humility was about, which was not what they understood about greatness.

What was it about a child that fitted Jesus’ idea of greatness? Smallness, weakness, vulnerability, defencelessness, needing the love, protection, and care of a father, carefree and trusting? According to the Message Bible, greatness in the kingdom of God is not about asserting but accepting – receiving because we have nothing to give. This is what is special about this father/child relationship that God offers us. All other religions demand that the worshipper does something and gives something. They must satisfy the often wicked and unpredictable demands of their god to prove their devotion and their worth. Jesus demands nothing. All He asks is for us to trust in the One who makes promises to us and gave His son for us. Elsewhere in the gospels He speaks of “receiving” the kingdom just as a little child eagerly receives a gift.

A child does not know that he is humble. Humility is being aware of how small, weak, and incapable we are of being anything without God. All these other things that the disciples were trying to prove were a vapour, a ghost that did not exist. Jesus was saying, “Just be real, man. Your size or age does not prove anything. Inside you are no bigger or more powerful than a child. You may shout louder or hit harder, but the outcome is the same – zero.”

We humans were in a dilemma. In Romans 5:6ff, Paul said that, when we were powerless (without strength) Christ died for us. We could do nothing and add nothing to His rescue plan. Now that we have been rescued, we can still add nothing. All He asks is that we trust Him and follow His instructions. It’s not about competing with anyone else. “What is that to you? Follow me,” is Jesus’ blunt response to our demand, “What about him?” it’s not your business.

So why should we not compete for “greatness”? God does not measure greatness by how important we are in the eyes of the world, but by how much we care about the people that the world despises and rejects. In His day, children were “nobodies”. And He blessed them and said that they were the “great” ones in the kingdom.

DISCIPLESHIP DEFINED

Christian Life, ,

DISCIPLESHIP DEFINED

“Anyone who intends to come with me must let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat – I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good is it to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?” Luke 9:23-25 (The Message)

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Luke 9:23-25

Verses 23-25 are a perfect summary of what Jesus meant by being His disciple and wearing His yoke. There is a strict order to be followed: Jesus – leader; disciple – follower. These two positions are not interchangeable. His leadership teaches us everything about being human and being part of the kingdom of God. Suffering is an inevitable part of following Jesus because being a disciple brings us into conflict with God’s enemy, the devil.

Because we are members of humanity, we experience the suffering that is the lot of all humanity; some of it is the result of being human and some of it is self-inflicted, the consequences of poor choices and bad judgments. But there is another aspect to suffering that the followers of Jesus can choose to avoid, which comes from the world’s hatred and rejection of His followers. God’s people suffer because of discrimination or legislation where religious systems and governments have joined together to get rid of Jesus’ followers. It happened in the apostles’ day from the Roman government and it happens today wherever false religions are in control of countries, including the church of Rome which teaches false doctrines.

Jesus insisted, “If you want to follow me, let me lead. I’ll show you how to embrace suffering, entrusting yourself to me as I entrusted myself to Him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23b)”. It may mean losing your life to find it, as Jesus did.

Some may be called to give their lives in loyalty to Jesus, but most are called to deny themselves to pour their lives out for the sake of others. This is a strange paradox, like the many paradoxes of the kingdom of God for example, if you want to live, you must die; if you live for yourself, you will die. The life of God is only ever fully experienced through the generosity of sacrificial service. The love, joy and peace of God is only fully experienced when we forget ourselves and take care of the needs of other people. These are the fruit of a life that is led by the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit is to live the way Jesus lived, loving, serving, and giving His life for others.

The problem, when we want to retaliate instead of trusting God when people treat us badly, is that we become part of evil instead of being part of Jesus, who broke the power of evil by dying and rising again. Jesus’ way is the only way to show the world how great God’s power really is.

ASLEEP!

Christian Life, , ,

ASLEEP!

Eight days after Jesus said this, He took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became bright as a flash of lightning…Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him.” Luke 9:28,29,32.

Peter, James, and John missed some of Jesus’ most magnificent moments because they were…asleep! Jesus was praying and was so powerfully enveloped in the glory of heaven that it became visible on earth. In the meantime the disciples were sleeping and woke up talking nonsense. They were just in time to catch a glimpse of Moses and Elijah near the tail end of their conversation with Jesus, but what did it mean to them? Nothing – nothing more than an event to be commemorated with three shrines.

If the three disciples had been more alert and praying, they would have been far more prepared for the next significant event, when Jesus prayed in a garden. It was all about His exodus, and they were a part of it whether they liked it or not. How different their reaction would have been had they followed their rabbi’s example and prayed instead of being spectators to His passion.

Yes, they had confessed, through the mouth of Peter, their opinion that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, but the content of that confession had yet to be shaped into an unshakeable conviction by recognising and acknowledging Him in the power of His death and resurrection. At this moment His identity was still hazy enough for Him to be placed next to Moses and Elijah, at least in Peter’s mind. He was still very much a Jew at heart, wanting to memorialise great revelations with stones rather than working them into the fabric of his life. What good would three shrines on top of a mountain do when he had to live in the valley of everyday life? Far more valuable would be to be convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, and to live out of that awareness in the ups and downs of life.

How do we live alert enough to discern great revelations when they come to us? So much of our learning comes through falling into traps and then recognising what they were on hindsight. Jesus’ counsel was “Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation.” Jesus’ response to temptation was submission – “Not my will but yours be done.” Our enemy is not so much the devil as ourselves, our will, our desires warring against the will of our Father. Jesus learned submission from the things that He suffered.

Falling asleep was not the solution when tests come our way. What great revelations of Jesus’ glory we miss when we sleep instead of being alert to see His glory in our times of testing.