Tag Archives: John

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – AMAZING GRACE!

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AMAZING GRACE!

“When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

“On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But the mother intervened: ‘No. He is to be called John.’

“‘But,’ they said, ‘no one in your family is named that.’ They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.

“Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, ‘His name is to be John.’ That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise – Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!

A deep reverential fear settled over the neighbourhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, ‘What will become of this child? God has His hand in this.'” Luke 1:57-66.

Zachariah was finally released from the silence inflicted on him because of his unbelief. What transpired in those nine months when he spent a lot of time with his own thoughts? Whatever went on in his mind, he was completely transformed, especially when he saw Elizabeth’s girth beginning to increase and he realised that the angel’s promise to him was real.

It was a discipline he probably would not like to go through again but it was necessary and he learned his lesson well. He was quick to obey the Lord’s instruction regarding the naming of his son. Contrary to custom and culture, he would not allow the present company to call him Zachariah. He backed up his wife’s declaration that the baby’s name would be John – meaning “grace”.

With this act of obedience came Zachariah’s moment for truth. Through the angel Gabriel, God has spoken an amazing prophecy over the child that was to be born. Now the baby boy had safely entered the world and all the things spoken about him were about to be played out from this time on. Zachariah and Elizabeth would be witnesses to and a part of the life of this unusual boy, filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth and ministering in the power and spirit of Elijah.

What did Zachariah feel like, especially as an elderly first-time father, when he looked into the ruddy little face of his new-born son, knowing that this was a very special and hand-picked child who was his responsibility to raise and train in the ways of the Lord? Did he also think of the fact that he might not even live to see his son into adulthood or into the fulfilment of his calling to be the forerunner of Messiah? Who would take over his role when he was no longer there?

This must have been an overwhelming moment for the old man. He displayed his confidence in the promises of God by giving him the name John. Why John? Was it because everything about the child was pure grace?

It was God’s grace that produced the miracle of conception and birth for an elderly couple who were well beyond childbearing years. It was God’s grace that gave them this special child, whom Jesus called “the greatest of the prophets”. It was God’s grace that took away the reproach of barrenness from Elizabeth and flooded her heart with gratitude for His mercy.

Most of all, it was God’s grace in its fullest measure that would be revealed through the Messiah who would be coming into the world, and who would be the focus of John’s ministry.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NIV).

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – YOUR PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD

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YOUR PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD

“But the angel reassured him, ‘Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer had been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John. You’re going to leap like a gazelle for joy, and not only you – many will delight in his birth. He’ll achieve great stature with God.'” Luke 1:13-15a.

“Your prayer has been heard.” That must have been a shock for Zachariah. What prayer? He and Elizabeth had prayed many prayers in their long lives together. Which one was the angel referring to? Perhaps they were still awaiting answers to some of their prayers and some had long been shelved – especially their prayer for a child. You don’t keep praying for something that is long past its “sell-by-date”!

Perhaps it just wasn’t God’s will or perhaps He had forgotten that childbearing ceases after a certain time, or perhaps, God forbid, He had just not heard them. Isn’t that the way we think when God is silent on the things that we are screaming about?

Zachariah had some important lessons to learn about God that day.

Firstly, Zachariah had to learn that God’s time table and his didn’t necessarily have to coincide. God was putting their details into a much bigger picture. If that entailed a long wait for them, it was a part of their discipline in God’s kingdom. God’s silence did not mean He had not heard. It means He was working on a bigger plan and Zachariah needed the patience to wait until His bigger plan was revealed.

Secondly, he had to learn that chronological age is no deterrent to God. The fact that they were old was irrelevant; in fact is suited God’s plan because no one would doubt that it was God at work.

Thirdly, God only works in supernatural ways when there is no possibility of working through the natural. The angel made it clear to him that Elizabeth would have a child by him. This was not going to be a virgin birth like the birth of Jesus. John the Baptist was as human as anyone else. He had an important role to play in preparing the way for the Messiah, but it would be through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, not through any supernatural birth or abilities given to him by God.

We often have the false idea that God overrides the natural and arbitrarily does miracles in answer to our prayers. This is not to deny the miraculous but to put it in perspective. For instance, Jesus refused to turn stones into bread at Satan’s instigation, not only because “Daddy hadn’t told Him to”, but also because that would not have been a miracle; it would have been magic because stones have no “bread” properties.

Yet Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, using ordinary food in an extraordinary way to meet needs because there was no other way. How often do we ask God to step in and do things for which He has made us responsible? We ask Him to make us more patient in the hopes that He will suddenly fill us with patience, or some other virtue, supernaturally. Instead, He orchestrates circumstances that demand that we exercise patience, and patience grows!

The lessons Zachariah had to learn are for us too. God is writing His big story, and giving us the privilege of being a part of it if we put ourselves at His disposal. He wants us to move away from demanding His attention to willingly fitting into the bigger picture for His glory.

The Cup And The Crown

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THE CUP AND THE CROWN

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He asked. They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at you left in your glory.’

‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said. ‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with?’ ‘We can,’ they answered.

Jesus said to them, ‘You will drink the cup I drink and be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with, but to sit on my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they are prepared.’ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John (Mark 10: 35-41).

What a cheek! James and John were shameless in their attempt to get ahead of their fellow disciples. Up to this point the disciples had jockeyed among themselves for the highest position in the kingdom of God. Jesus often caught them arguing and tried to instil in them the values of the kingdom but, apparently to no avail. In the same way as they ignored His repeated warnings about His impending death, they were deaf to His teaching about leadership and greatness.

Now James and John went straight to the top. One would have thought that they would have been careful about approaching Jesus on this subject seeing that He had clearly taught them not to seek greatness. The way up was down, He told them, but they had obviously not got the message.

Did you notice how they approached Him? “Will you say yes to whatever we ask you?” That’s what children do. They want to secure the parent’s agreement before they ask what they want. Jesus was smart. He was not about to fall into their trap. “Tell me what you want first and then I’ll give you an answer.” Their response was bold and brash. They had obviously schemed together to secure their place in the kingdom before the other disciples got in. “Promise us that we will have the places of honour beside you when you are crowned king.”

“You guys just don’t understand, do you?” I can imagine that Jesus was annoyed with them. What would it take to get it into their thick skulls that they had no right to ask for what they were asking? Matthew mentioned that their mother accompanied them when they came to Jesus with the request and voiced it for them. Did they think that their mom had more clout with Jesus than they had? This had even become a family matter.

Jesus’ response cut right across their way of thinking. There was a cup to drink and a baptism to be baptised with before they could receive a position of honour like that. What was the “cup” to which Jesus referred? It was a cup and a baptism He, first of all, was about to endure before they could experience it themselves.

Throughout the Old Testament the “cup” is mentioned – both the cup of God’s wrath (Jer. 25:15) and the cup of salvation (Psalm 116: 13). Without going into great detail, “cup” is a euphemism for the full experience of either wrath of salvation. Paul uses the same expression to refer to God’s blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). To “drink” implies to take it into oneself with all its effects.

“James and John, before you can participate in any glory that belongs to me, you must first drink the cup I must drink. Can you do that?” How blasé they were in their reply. “Yes, we can” they replied, yet they had no clue about what they were saying. Sadly Jesus agreed that they would drink the cup and go through the baptism but to give them the assurance of the honour they requested was not His right.

Jesus’ position of honour was given to Him by the Father but earned by His humiliation and suffering. He drank the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs so that He could offer the cup of salvation to anyone who received it by faith. Mere association with Jesus did not qualify the brothers. Only full participation with Him would allow them to share in His glory. The cup first and them the crown.

At that moment they had no idea what He meant but they would one day. John was killed at the hands of the despotic Herod and John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Yes, they had a cup to drink – the cup of suffering because they had been baptised into identity with Jesus.

Each of us has our own cup to drink and our own baptism to be baptised with. Only when we submit to Jesus and embrace the cup will we have a share in what has been prepared for us.

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.

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

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

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

From Hothead To Beloved

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FROM HOTHEAD TO BELOVED

‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.’

‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah, will not lose his reward (Mark 9: 38-41).  

John – Boanerges. Son of thunder! Hothead! Together with his brother James, John certainly earned the nickname. Without consulting the Master he, together with the other disciples, poured cold water on a would-be disciple of Jesus who was casting out demons in His name. John was not going to have any Tom, Dick or Harry do what they, the disciples exclusively were appointed to do! After all, they were the chosen ones. They were “in” and everyone else was “out” and they were not about to let any outsider in on their privileges.

How one earth did John change from being a hothead to calling himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”? Did Jesus love him more than the other disciples? Was he the favourite out of all the others? That’s not what he claimed. By using this description of himself, he did not say that Jesus loved him more than the others. All he knew was that Jesus loved him.

What was even more amazing was that not only did John’s nickname change but also his disposition. From hothead, he became the disciple of love. One only has to read his letters to realise that this was no hothead speaking. In his years with Jesus something profound happened inside him. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent on the Day of Pentecost to be His own presence in His people, radically changed John. How is it possible that a person’s character and disposition, inborn and formed during his childhood, could be so transformed the he was no longer the same person?

There is only one answer – the power of God working within. People can change for a little while if they have a mind to, but it is usually only cosmetic. They will revert to their old disposition when the pressure is on. But not John. And not anyone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and is determined to follow Jesus.

God created the first man in His image. He put His stamp of ownership on him by making him like Himself. Humans are the only creatures who have the capacity to be one with Him by choice because that’s how He made them to be. The rest of creation was also created to be one. However, unlike man, it functions by instinct, not by choice. Natural creation was also affected by the Fall and is out of harmony because of sin.

God has promised that all of creation will be restored to its original purpose when Jesus returns. In the meantime, He is at work in those who believe in Him, who have His Spirit in them and who are submitted to Him.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom. 8: 28-29).

How does this happen? It will happen to us as it happened to John and to the other disciples.

And we all who, with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3: 18).

John could not watch, listen to and follow Jesus for three years and be loved by Him, and then be invaded by the Holy Spirit without being changed by His love. Neither can we. The secret of transformation lies in our contemplation of the Master. That is the purpose of worship. We become like the thing we worship. Gaze at the world and what the world says and does and we will embrace the world’s standards and behave like the world. Keep gazing at Jesus and we will become like Him.

John was transformed from Boanerges to “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” When we realise in the depth of our hearts how great is the love of God for us, we will be transformed, just as he was into those who know that we are deeply loved by God. .

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.

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

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

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

A Cryptic Answer

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A CRYPTIC ANSWER

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting but yours are not?’ Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. (Mark 2: 18-20).

Members of the audience asked Jesus a straightforward question and got an answer full of mystery. ‘Why do the disciples of these guys fast and yours do not?’ They said nothing about bridegrooms and weddings. But veiled in Jesus answer were many cryptic clues, both to His identity and His destiny.

Did those who questioned Him realise that He was referring to something that had happened in the history of His people centuries before? When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God led them through the Red Sea straight to Mount Sinai in the land of Midian, where God had met with Moses and called him to deliver his people from slavery.

On their arrival, God went through all the stages in a young man’s courtship of a maiden culminating in a marriage proposal. He asked them to be His bride – and He was, therefore, from then on, betrothed to Israel, their bridegroom, awaiting the wedding day when He would fetch His bride and take her to His Father’s house where He had prepared the bridal chamber for the consummation of their marriage.

When Jesus, in a veiled way, referred to Himself as the “bridegroom”, was He saying that He was the one who had betrothed His people to Himself at Mount Sinai? Was He telling them that He had arrived in person to propose to His bride once again, since His betrothed had rejected Him in the past? Why should His presence among them be a time of fasting? It was a time of joyous celebration because He would remove all hostility between them and the Father once and for all.

Their sins had separated them from God. They had persistently rebelled against Him and disobeyed His instructions. They had betrayed Him and made alliances with them enemy. They were unfaithful to the marriage covenant He had given them at Mount Sinai. They had not honoured their promise to remain loyal to Him in spite of His faithfulness to them.

He had come Himself to deal with their misunderstanding of who His Father really was, so that they would anticipate their life in Father’s house with joy when the wedding day finally came. Both John the Baptist and the Pharisees, who had gathered followers around them, could make no such offer. All they could do was to invite people to become part of the religious ritual they followed. Even John, who was the forerunner of Messiah, could offer them nothing but “fasting”.

Then Jesus made another cryptic comment. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. What was He talking about? He did not say that the bridegroom would go away. That was the normal procedure in the courtship process. Both He and His bride has preparations to make before the wedding. His was to prepare the bridal chamber back as His Father’s house. Hers was to separate herself from all other men and to prepare her wedding gown.

But taken away? What did He mean? Again this was a cryptic clue and a veiled message that He would be forcefully removed. Why? How? He did not give them details. There was a hostile element in this love relationship that wanted the bridegroom out of the way. They would get rid of Him and then the real reason for fasting would begin – not ritual fasting for religious reasons but grief because the bridegroom had been permanently removed – so they thought.

Jesus did not tell them the end of the story. He was under no obligation to inform people who had no attachment to Him about His future. That would come later when His own disciples were thoroughly convinced that He was who He said He was – the Son of God – and would bear witness through their changed lives, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that the kingdom of God had really come.

In the meantime it was perfectly okay for them to enjoy the presence of the bridegroom for a little while and not to get all religious about it.

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.

 

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

 

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

 

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com