Tag Archives: believe

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – FROM GRIEF TO JOY

Bible Study, ,

FROM GRIEF TO JOY

35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. Mark 5:35-43

After an agonising interruption for the grief-stricken father, Jesus and His disciples moved towards Jairus’ house, surrounded by the ever-present throng. A delegation from Jairus’ house met them with a message that Jairus was dreading to hear, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?” Their words seemed like the cut-off point. Alive – Jesus could still step in and heal her. Dead – she was beyond His reach, so Jairus thought.

I can imagine the strangled cry of grief that escaped from his throat. But this was no time for turning from Jesus, and Jesus was quick to reassure him. I love His words, “Don’t listen to them. Just trust me.” How many times do I need to hear Him say that? It’s always about the choice of, “Whom do I trust?” As this story proceeds, it becomes quite clear who knew what He was talking about and who was proved wrong. Jesus said she was sleeping; they ridiculed Him. They said she was dead.

How did the child’s parents feel at this point? I cannot imagine. They had no experience of ever seeing a dead person live. It all seemed so final and yet; they were about to witness something in their own home that fully satisfied their prophetic expectation – Malachi 4:2 – coming alive before their very eyes. Jesus stepped forward, spread His talith over the child and said, “The Messiah is here. Little girl, get up.” And she did.

What was the significance of Jesus’ cautioning words, “Don’t tell anyone what happened here”? This seems crazy when everyone outside would know that the dead child had come back to life in that room. That was not the issue. The issue was that Jesus’ action was the fulfillment of Old Testament and especially Malachi’s prophecy and they had witnessed it. At that point, He did not want them to broadcast what had happened. People needed to come to faith by being fully convinced themselves that He was Messiah, not because of other people’s faith.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – EVERYTHING IN THE SCRIPTURES

Bible Study, ,

EVERYTHING IN THE SCRIPTURES

“Then He said to them, ‘So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into His glory?’ Then He started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to Him.” Luke 24:25-27 (The Message).

What a Bible study! No one ever has, and no one ever will explain the Scriptures as Jesus did to those two that day! All the learned Jewish rabbis from ancient times could not have understood the Word of God as He did because He was both author and subject of the book.

Perhaps the message of these verses is the same for us today as it was for them then – we are thick-headed and slow-hearted because of our ignorance of the Scriptures. God has not only given us His Word but He has given us His Spirit to explain and interpret His Word. And yet we have so many teachings and practices that have “evolved” from the Bible that are not true to the Bible because, unlike the noble Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11b NIV, we have not gone back to the Bible to verify the things we believe and practise.

Everything about Himself was there for them to discover if they had only taken the trouble to search. In fact, had they listened to Him with faith, they would have understood because He was the living Word right there with them for three years. John testified that “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have enough room for all the books that would be written.” John 21:25 (NIV). That is quite a statement!

Firstly, Jesus gave one simple instruction to His disciples out of which flows everything else He taught and demonstrated. He said to them, and to us, “Remain in me” And yet, if one considers the variety of superstructures that have been built on Him, the picture of true discipleship has been horribly distorted. All the rituals and paraphernalia that have been piled on Him have buried Him and replaced Him with nothing but another man-made religion.

Where do robes, incense, chanting, processions, hierarchy, priesthood and laity, rituals and every other belief and practice added to the simplicity of His call, fit into His purpose for coming? Do these things help us to live in harmony together as brothers and sisters in the family of God so that we can be witnesses to Him in the world?

Jesus calls us into close fellowship with Him with no trappings and requirements other than to believe, love and obey Him. Out of that flows our fellowship with each other. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3 (NIV). Where does all this other stuff fit into that?

Secondly, we have built a world-wide prayer movement called “spiritual warfare” that in fact functions as though the death of Jesus were inadequate to deal with the devil. We are taught to “pull down”, “take authority over”, “break through”, “cast out”, “identify principalities”, “bind and loose” and even do “prayer walks” with no regard to the truth that Jesus accomplished the total defeat of Satan at the cross.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations which were against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV).

If we have doubts about the efficacy of Jesus’ death, then we must add all these other things to try to subdue the devil. There is no evidence in the book of Acts that the Early Church was taught to do any of these things. By sharing their lives and their resources with one another and preaching Jesus as Lord, they turned the world upside down and brought down powerful religions like Diana-worship and eventually even the worship of Caesar.

The Bible sounds a serious warning to those who add anything to the sufficiency of the person and work of Jesus. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” Galatians 1:8 (NIV).

How important it was for those disciples then, and for us today, to know that Jesus had to suffer, to die and to be raised from the dead so that we can be living witnesses of who He is. Our transformed lives show the world that Jesus, and not the devil, is Lord, and expose his deception.

Jesus – The Son Of God

Christian Life, , , , ,

JESUS – THE SON OF GOD

The Apostle John recorded Jesus’ miracles from a different perspective from the other three gospel writers. He presented Jesus to his readers as the Son of God.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing, you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31).

John recorded only seven miracles in his gospel which he referred to as signs. Each miracle focused on a specific aspect of the nature of Jesus. Each of the seven miracles resulted in either an individual or a group putting their faith in Jesus or, at least, responding positively to Him.

  1. Water to wine (John 2: 11)

The disciples put their faith in Him.

  1. Healing the official’s son (John 4: 53)

The official and his household believed in Him.

  1. The paralysed man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5: 15)

The paralysed man who was healed broadcast everywhere what Jesus had done for him.

  1. The feeding of the five thousand (John 6: 68-69)

Peter confirmed the disciples’ faith in Him.

  1. Jesus walk on the water (John 6: 19-21)

No record of anyone coming to faith.

  1. The man born blind (John 9: 38)

The blind man who was healed believed in Jesus.

  1. Lazarus raised from the dead (John 11: 45)

Martha, Mary and many of the Jews believed in Him.

John’s declared purpose for relating only these seven miracles out of a choice of many others was to bring His readers to faith in Jesus so that they would have eternal life.

John’s choice of signs focuses on one thing – that Jesus’s disciples would see the glory of God in Him and that they would believe.

Not only did He work miracles to relieve people’s suffering and even to call them back from premature death, Jesus also showed His power over the natural world. He calmed a violent storm on the lake, walked on water and multiplied bread and fish to feed a hungry multitude. Was He merely showing off or doing magic, or was He revealing His control over the natural world? Why would He do that?

His disciples were stunned at His power over a stormy lake. He simply spoke and the wind and waves obeyed Him – from violent wind and turbulent water to instant calm. They were awestruck and afraid.

They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him?’ (Mark 4: 41)

After He had fed five thousand people with only five small barley loaves and two fish, He sent His disciples back across the lake while He went into the hills to pray. A storm came up on the lake during the night while the disciples were on their way home. Jesus set off after them, walking on the water. When they saw Him, they were terrified, thinking He was a ghost.

Jesus called out to identify Himself and the ever-impetuous Peter, wanting to do what his rabbi did, asked permission to walk on the water as well. To his great surprise, he managed to take a few steps before fear got the better of him. Jesus grabbed him and they both made it to the boat in safety. The minute they climbed into the boat the wind ceased and the lake calmed down. How did the disciples react?

Then those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ (Matt. 14: 33)

After giving His disciples opportunity to gather evidence, He would ask them, on another occasion, the most important question they would ever have to answer. In a most unlikely environment, Caesarea Philippi, where idols were publicly worshipped by sexual orgies with goats He asked them,

‘But what about you? . .  Who do you say that I am?’ (Matt. 16: 15)

Without hesitation Peter, as the spokesman for the group declared:

‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ (Matt. 16: 16)

How did Peter reach this conclusion? Evidence! The accumulative evidence of all that Jesus had said and done led to only one conclusion – Jesus was no ordinary man. He was a man and much more – He was the Son of the living God.

Every rabbi with authority selected disciples in whom he had confidence that they would do what he did and even more.  Jesus expressed His confidence in the men He had chosen:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. (John 14: 12)

Unlike all other rabbis who trusted their disciples but had no guarantee that they would fulfil their expectation, Jesus could say with confidence that His disciples would do even greater things than He did because He was returning to the Father and would send the Holy Spirit to be in them forever. The same Spirit who empowered Him would do His works through them if they believed.

The apostle Paul declared that we are God’s masterpieces, created in Christ to do the good works He prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2: 10). What are these good works which God has prepared for us to do? According to Jesus, the same works He did, showing mercy to all people!

His commission to His disciples before He left them was to go and make disciples of all nations. He conferred on them the authority He had received from the Father to do the same things He did. This means that the works we do will confirm the authenticity of Jesus as Messiah and the Son of God, with the right and power to forgive sin, testify to the nature of God and His kingdom and proclaim that the kingdom of God is here, just as His works did.

In response to His commission, Jesus’s disciples went everywhere preaching His word as He had commanded them to do.

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it. (Mark 16: 19-20)

He did not send them out to hold healing and miracle campaigns. The emphasis was not on miracles; it was on the kingdom of God of which Jesus is king. As He was proclaimed, so He confirmed His Word with signs.

This was the testimony of Paul as well.

The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles – were done among you with great perseverance. (2 Cor. 12: 12)

Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done – by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. (Rom. 15: 18-19)

Did you get the order? First the proclamation of the gospel of Christ – then the signs and wonders which confirmed the Word of God.

Is it not possible that there is far too much focus today on the signs and wonders which people are seeking instead of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God and His kingdom, towards which the miracles point? Miracles have become an end in themselves instead of a confirmation that the kingdom of God is here. Those who claim to live in the kingdom are to walk in the ways of the Lord. It is His role to work with us and to confirm His Word with signs.

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.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available

 

Talk About Power!

Bible Study, , ,

TALK ABOUT POWER!

I pray also that the eyes if your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1: 18-19).

Once again we must remember the background of these Ephesian believers. Many of them had come out of witchcraft. After their conversion, they had made a huge bonfire of their witchcraft paraphernalia in the city. Their lives had been invaded by the power of God, the God of pure love. From then on, they could no longer have a part of anything that misused other people.

Why do people dabble in witchcraft? Why do some even sell their souls to the devil? He promises them power! But the only power the devil can give is power to control and power to destroy. It is evil power because it affects the lives of other for the worse. The next problem with demonic power is that it diminishes the person who uses it. Every time one person brings harm to another, he is diminished and dehumanised.

These ex-witches and wizards burned their past when they burned the tools of their sorcery, to tell the world and the devil that they had finished with that life. They were now under a new Master, one who also had power, a different kind of power of which they had never dreamed. Perhaps at that point of their new-found faith, they did not know the magnitude of the power that resided in them.

What did they need? Enlightenment. Understanding. Knowledge. Up this point in their lives, they had been fed and had believed lies. Since the early history of man, a false religion had grown up around Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah, and his evil wife Semiramis and her illegitimate son, Tammuz. Through a series of fabricated stories that Semiramis spawned, she had deified Nimrod as the sun-god, Baal, and she became the moon-goddess, known as Ashtaroth, or Astarte (Diana), or by other names in many parts of the ancient world.

Behind these false stories, the father of lies was garnering worship for himself under a variety a nom de plumes, which was exactly what he craved, even if he had to do it by deceit. Paul came to Ephesus with a blistering message of the truth. Satan, alias Caesar, alias Baal or any other name behind which he hid, was not Lord. Jesus was Lord and He proved it by His resurrection. Satan, through the evil religious leaders in Israel, tried to destroy Him but, instead, his plan backfired and Jesus destroyed him.

Those who were held captive to the devil and were enslaved to live in wickedness were now free to escape the devil’s clutches. Jesus had rescued them from their hell, forgiven their sin, power-washed them clean by His blood and relocated them to the kingdom of God where they had always belonged. Satan was the squatter, the hijacker and the felon who had usurped God’s position on His earth. Paul said, “If you want to know real power, that’s power.”

Many of us have seen effects of the raw power of nature. Fire, wind, water, earthquakes, rip through a region and leave utter devastation in their wake. But have you even noticed the power of a seed. I have seen buildings split open by the force of a growing seed. That’s power! Power does not only destroy. God’s power is able to restore, renew and recreate. He can heal broken hearts, broken people, and broken relationships. He can give people whom the devil has destroyed, a fresh start. Jesus said that it’s like being “born again”.

Paul wanted these people, who had only known destruction in their lives, to experience that kind of power. He prayed that they would have their spiritual eyes opened to the truth of what had happened to them. God had removed the cloud of doom that hung over them, and the deep-seated fear of death which was the legacy of those who gave allegiance to the devil. He had replaced it with hope, the unseen end product of what He had done for them through Jesus.

Their faith in Jesus had cancelled fear. They were safe in God’s kingdom – under His authority and protection from the one who had now become their arch-enemy. Jesus had bought them back from slavery. They were legitimately His. They now belonged to God, body, soul and spirit, and He had the power to keep them from wandering back into enemy territory as long as they kept their eyes on Him.

But the power of God didn’t end there. He had put a power source in them that had created the universe. Take that, devil! Satan is not a creator; he can only counterfeit what God has created. Even the people who worship him do not belong to him. He stole them and put his mark on them, the mark of rebellion in their hearts. God put His plan right back on track by rescuing the ones the devil had kidnapped, cleaned out all the evidence of his ownership and replaced them with His Spirit, His guarantee of ownership.

What power is there in the universe greater than the power of the Holy Spirit? His power is recreating, regenerating, restoring, and renewing power. “That’s the power of God I want you to know,” said Paul. God alone can give you understanding and experience of His power that is able to set aspects of your life right that went horribly wrong when Adam rebelled against God – your relationship with God, and your relationship with people. When these two areas of your life are back on track, everything in your life will come back into focus.

God’s power does something amazing inside of you. He enables you to take control of yourself. That’s it! When you have your own heart in check, through the power of the Holy Spirit in you, your world will turn right side up. It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit and it’s called, “self-control”!

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.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

Believe And Love

Bible Study, , , ,

BELIEVE AND LOVE

And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us (1 John 3:23-24).

John’s recurring refrain through this letter is “we know”. How different from the religions of the world which can only say in the end, when they have presented all their fanciful theories and ideas, “We don’t know.” How tragic to get to the end of life, to pass on and to discover that they were wrong all the time.

There are so many reasons why those who believe in Jesus can say with confidence, “We know.” I know that we have been accused of pride and arrogance, that we have no right to force our beliefs on other people, that we are intolerant and guilty of “hate speech” and many other accusations but why should we not be confident in what we believe when we have concrete evidence of its truth.

Take, for example, the historicity of the person in whom we put our confidence. Did Jesus Christ really live? Was He a historical figure? Some have tried to disprove His existence but, apart from the testimony of the Bible (which is a historical document with more early manuscripts to verify the reliability of its records than any other ancient document in history), there is the evidence of secular documents from that period of history that Jesus really lived.

Not only was He a historical figure, but He also did what He said He would do. He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish Sanhedrin, found guilty and referred to Pilate for sentencing. Pilate found Him not guilty of treason against Rome but sentenced Him to death by crucifixion as a concession to the Jews. He rose from the dead on the third day and appeared to more than five hundred people at different times.

His disciples were so convinced of His identity as the Son of God and His resurrection from the dead because they saw Him that they went everywhere preaching and passing on the good news of the kingdom of God. They were mercilessly persecuted as blasphemers and enemies of Rome because they refused to bow to Caesar as Lord, but they refused to recant. In spite of the threat to their lives, thousands of Gentiles turned from the idols to believe in Jesus and to worship the true and living God.

Was this whole interlude just a series of events which took place in history? God’s trump card as far as authenticity goes, is prophecy. Hundreds of details about God’s Messiah were written into the text of His holy book centuries before they happened and accurately fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. This is impossible unless God both planned the events and executed them exactly as He had predicted because He knew the whole scope of history before it happened.

What is even more amazing is that He was able to marry His will and human free will in such a way that He could never be accused of treating human beings like puppets. Peter captured this thought accurately on the Day of Pentecost when he said:

This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross (Acts 2: 23).

Peter could also triumphantly declare:

But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2: 24).

Jesus Himself prophesied that He would be arrested and put to death by the Jewish leaders, not because they had power over Him but because He willingly laid down His life for His sheep.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (John 10: 17-18a).

The rabble who came to arrest Him had no power to take Him until He handed Himself over to them (John 18:3-6). He had every opportunity to evade arrest, but He approached them and willingly allowed Himself to be taken.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost sealed every word Jesus had spoken and every promise He had made. The disciples were transformed in an instant from frightened and cowering men to bold and confident apostles of Jesus, facing the wrath of the Jewish leaders with courage and refusing to back down on their message because they knew it was true.

We also, who believe in Jesus, have every right to say, “We know,” because we share the same Lord, the same message, the same Holy Spirit and the same experience of transformation from selfish rebels to submissive and obedient sons and daughters of the living God as they had.

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.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?