Tag Archives: Father

Chips Off The Old Block

Bible Study, , , ,

CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK 

“‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered.’If you were Abraham’s children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.’

“‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested.’The only father we have is God Himself.'” John 8:39-41 (NIV).

These were men who, a few verses back were said to have believed in Jesus. Yet here they were still scheming to kill Jesus.

They prided themselves on being the descendants of Abraham and they even went as far as claiming God as their Father. But so did Jesus. So who was telling the truth? They could not both be descendants of Abraham since the fruit of their lives was so vastly different.

The Apostle Paul argued that the real children of Abraham are those who did what he did, not those who were his natural descendants. What did Abraham do? “What does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.'” Romans 4:3 (NIV).

“It was not through the Law that Abraham and his offspring received that promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. Therefore the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” Romans 4:16 (NIV).

“Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7 (NIV).

It is clear that the argument of these religious leaders held no water because their attitude and the intentions negated their claim to be the descendants of Abraham. Their snide retort, ‘We are not illegitimate children,’ was a backhanded slap in the face of Jesus. Were they insinuating that He was illegitimate because Joseph was not His Father? Once again their assumptions led them into dangerously false allegations.

What of those who claim descent from Abraham but who hate and murder believers in Jesus in the name of their god. Do they not fall into the same category as these men who were contending that they were Abraham’s offspring yet they were planning to kill Jesus?

How important it is that we take the words of Jesus seriously! No matter what claims we may make, they are of no consequence if they are not backed up by fact. Our churches are full of people who believe that they are sons and daughters of God, yet they are no different from the people in the world. Signing a decision card or answering an altar call do not constitute a good enough reason for assuming that we are now children of God.

The real test is: Who do we resemble? The true children of God are those who resemble Him in their attitudes and behaviour. Jesus is God with a face. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” He told Philip. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word.” Hebrews 1:3 (NIV).

We can sum up the character of Jesus in two words — merciful and generous. The true followers of Jesus are those who obey Him. “If you love me, (you will) keep my commandments.” John 14:15. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 (NIV).

These so-called believers in Jesus just didn’t get it. Do you?

A True Son

Bible Study, , , ,

A TRUE SON 

“‘Who are you?’ they asked.’Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,’ Jesus replied.’I have much to say in judgment of you. But He who sent me is trustworthy, and what I heard from Him I tell the world.’ They did not understand that He was telling them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.'” John 8:25-29 (NIV).

Another outrageous claim if it were not true! “I always do what pleases Him.”

This was the hallmark of the Son of God. He always did what pleased the Father. Have you ever wondered what that was? What do you think it is that pleases the Father more than anything? We can speculate and find many answers to this question. He was generous and merciful just like the Father — that would be a good answer and it would be true. He glorified that Father in everything He did — that would also be true.

But what is it that surpasses everything else that pleases the Father? To find the answer we have to go back to the beginning. At the beginning of human history God gave Adam one instruction in the Garden of Eden, ‘Leave that one tree alone.’ If that one tree was going to be an issue between man and God, Satan made sure that man would focus on it until it became so important to him that it would become the reason for their disobedience.

The history of God’s ancient people was a history of disobedience, focusing especially on God’s instruction, ‘Do not worship idols.’ They worshipped the idols of the surrounding nations until they became vile, like the thing they loved (Hosea 9:10). Disobedience took them to Babylon and eventually to crucifying their Messiah.

God had a different verdict on David, their model king, the man who followed their first king, Saul, who was rejected because of his disobedience. “After removing Saul, He made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'” Acts 13:22b (NIV).

Books have been written about David, the only man in the Bible of whom God said, ‘A man after my own heart’, giving many reasons for God’s approval, yet it is recorded plainly in the Word that God was pleased with him because ‘He will do everything I want him to do.’ David may have slipped up on more than one occasion but the drift of his life was that he ‘inquired of the Lord,’ and then followed through on God’s instruction.

Compare him with his predecessor, King Saul; Saul failed to carry out the two instructions we read about in Scripture.  Because of that God could not trust him to be the leader of His people. Saul had a dangerous self-consciousness that made him a people-pleaser and he disqualified himself from being the first of a dynasty of kings.

Jesus could claim, without a qualm, that He was the true Son of God. His obedience to the Father was absolute and unquestioning. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He wrestled with the horror of the cross until the blood ran, He still submitted to the Father’s will and endured everything without resistance. “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.” 1 Peter 2:23 (NIV).

Is it not true that God is more interested in our obedience than in our achievements? It is our obedience that makes our achievements of significance to God because obedience gets the job done. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him…” Hebrews 5:8, 9, (NIV). Obedience is best learned by obeying!

Obedience presupposes that one knows what God’s requirements are and that presupposes that one spends time with the Father and in His Word. We have the pattern of the Son, perfect in every way. And we can’t say that of the Pharisees!

Don’t you also want to please the Father? Then find out what He wants of you and do it!

Knowing The Father

Bible Study, , ,

 KNOWING THE FATHER 

“Then they asked Him, ‘Where is your father?’ ‘You do not know me or my Father,’ Jesus replied. ‘If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’ He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized Him because His hour had not yet come.” John 8:18-20 (NIV).

“If you knew me, you would know my Father also,” is a loaded statement.

Of course. There are levels of knowing. Acquaintance is the first and most superficial level — “Do you know so-and-so?”  “Yes, I met him at the…” That person is no longer a total stranger. I have met him, seen his face and been introduced to him. When someone speaks of him, I know who they are talking about. I know him.

The second level of knowing goes much deeper. I get to know someone when I spend time with him. Perhaps he is a work colleague or even a friend. We talk; we share information about one another; we see one another’s reactions in various circumstances and can even predict how that person will respond when this or that happens.

But not even friends know me in my home environment. I am able to conceal things from them that my family know about because they do not see me in my most vulnerable moments. My family and I live together in much closer and more intimate contact. I cannot hide the quirks and idiosyncrasies of my personality and behaviour from them. They know me and I know them.

The deepest of human knowing happens between a husband and wife. They live together in the most intimate union that humans can share. According to Genesis 2:25, it is God’s intention that the union between husband and wife be the most intimate union possible to human beings. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:25 (NIV).

The Hebrew word yada, translated know, has several different meanings depending on the context. In the context of Genesis 2:25 it means “dedicating ourselves to a person so that we can engage them with our love and affection.”

Now look at Proverbs 12:10: “The righteous know (yada) the needs of their animals but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” In this context the word yada conveys the idea of the good person “understanding the needs of the people around them and taking care of them.”

In Jeremiah 22:15-16 the prophet delivers a scathing rebuke on King Shallum, the son of the good king, Josiah of Judah. Shallum had acted selfishly, neglecting the poor and needy and exploiting others to build his kingdom. Here the prophet blends the meanings of the word yada into one.

“‘Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ says the Lord.”

The Lord tells the king what it truly means to know (yada) Him; to do what is right; to show mercy to the poor and needy; to exemplify good and righteous character. To know God is faithfully to live out our covenant relationship with the Lord in every area of our lives. ( www.yadadrop.com/about/what-does-yada-mean).

Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus emphatically told these humbug religious leaders that they did not know God? How could they when they were the opposite of everything that knowing God meant? They refused to recognize in Jesus a visible replica of His Father. His goodness infuriated them. They saw Him only as a threat to be eliminated, but their hands were tied until it was His time!

Do you know God?

Truth Is Its Own Witness

Bible Study, , ,

TRUTH IS ITS OWN WITNESS 

“The Pharisees challenged Him, ‘Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I came from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true because I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am the one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.'” John 8:13-18 (NIV).

The Pharisees must have learned their lesson well. They had tried to catch Jesus out by bringing a woman caught in adultery and demanding that He authorize her to be stoned. According to the Law of Moses, stoning was the penalty for adultery. Jesus applied another law to rescue the woman from their cruel plot — the very same law that they were now appealing to, the law of two witnesses.

They pointed fingers at the woman while they were equally guilty of sin. When Jesus allowed their consciences to speak against them, they left and the woman was without witnesses against her and He was able to show her mercy and set her free. Now they accused Jesus of being His own witness.

Jesus was not fazed by their accusation. He knew that truth did not need witnesses. Human beings can never claim to know the truth in absolute terms because our witness is flawed by our faulty understanding and opinions. At best we can only judge by what we think we know or have seen. Jesus, on the other hand, IS the truth — His judgment is perfect, based on perfect knowledge because He is the embodiment of truth. Therefore His witness is true.

Jesus knew both His origin and His destiny. He knew that He had been sent by the Father and was returning to the Father. Because the Pharisees rejected Him, they did not believe that He had come from God. Therefore they kept asking, ‘Who are you and where do you come from?’

Jesus had many witnesses that testified to the validity of His claims. John the Baptist bore witness to Him as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Father audibly acknowledged Him at His baptism; the Holy Spirit visibly descended on Him; and His miracles testified that He was from God. Only Nicodemus, of all the Pharisees recognized that there was something different about this rabbi. He had both authority and power that no other rabbi had ever displayed. His conclusion was that God was with Him.

Unbelief is a powerful and effective block against the truth. On the other hand, faith is the only link we have with the knowledge of the truth. Faith opens the highway between us and God. Our faith is so precious to God that He continually tests us to strengthen and verify that our faith is genuine.

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes ever though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6, 7(NIV).

How often, in our ignorance of God’s ways, do we attribute our trials to the devil instead of recognizing the hand of the Father working in us to strengthen our confidence in Him. How else can faith grow and become strong if we have no opportunity to exercise our trust in God when we cannot see one step ahead of us?

Because of the Pharisees’ hidden agenda, they refused to receive the witness to Jesus that was all around them if they had only wanted to believe. It comes down to one thing again — choice. They chose not to believe because Jesus interfered with their unholy ambitions.

We are also faced with the same choice. We do not need more proof that Jesus is the Son of God. We need to choose whether we want to be part of His kingdom or continue to be part of the kingdom of this world which is destined to perish along with everything that is not eternal.

Faith Is The Key

Bible Study, , ,

FAITH IS THE KEY 

“‘I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish — the very works that I am doing — testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has Himself testified concerning me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one He sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.'” John 5:36-40 (NIV).

Jesus and the religious leaders stood on opposite sides of an impenetrable wall. The heart of Jesus yearned for them to see the light and recognize that He was speaking the truth when He declared that the works He did and the witness of the Father pointed to only one thing — that He was the Son of God. Their desperate efforts to protect their power and influence over the people and their prejudice against Him because they hated His love for all people, blinded their eyes to His identity.

Again and again they demanded, ‘Who are you?’ but then rejected the evidence before their eyes because they stubbornly refused to believe His word. In the end it was not about their inability to understand. It was about their refusal to believe because they had another agenda. Had God or an angel personally come to explain the truth to them, they would still have refused to believe.

These men were professional students of the Word. They had memorised and studied the entire Old Testament from childhood and could flawlessly recite any part of it at will. It was in their heads but not in their hearts because their understanding and interpretation of the Word was fixed by their “yoke”, their way of interpreting and applying the Word. They followed the yoke of their rabbis, Shammai and Hillel, and the ancient rabbis who went before them, the men who determined how the Scriptures were to be understood.

Although the common people recognized the overriding authority of Jesus, they did not, and despised them for following and listening to Him. Not even the testimony of the highly revered prophet, John, could convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. They were in bed with the Romans and enjoyed their protection as long as they kept the people under their thumbs. They did not want anyone to rock their boat, especially this “softie” who had the common people eating out of His hand.

Their study of the Scriptures was purely academic, to reinforce their power over the people, not because they were looking for the truth about the Messiah. It was there before their eyes and available to anyone who had the will to believe, but for these men, the truth was safely hidden until they unlocked it with the key of faith.

It was out of these altercations with the religious leaders that some of the richest revelation of Jesus and His relationship with the Father came. His opponents might not have chosen to believe His word, but for those who do, we have the assurance and the witness that Jesus was no fake but truly the Son of God for, as Nicodemus testified, no one can do these things unless God is with him.

How does Jesus’ testimony sit with us? It actually has more to do with choice than with fact. Like the Pharisees we can choose to reject His word, or we can choose to believe and then have the witness in our spirits that what He said and what He promised is true. The world says, “Seeing is believing,” but that is the way of the skeptic. The Bible says, “Believing is seeing,” and that is the way of Father.

Faith must take the first step, based on the evidence, and the confirmation will follow. Faith puts into action what we know to be true, and God responds by fulfilling His word. We all fall into one of two categories, those who choose to believe or those who choose not to believe and the outcome depends on our choice.