Tag Archives: Jesus

Honour The Honour

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HONOUR THE HONOUR! 

“At that Jesus rejoiced, exuberant in the Holy Spirit. ’I thank you, Father, Master of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the know-it-alls and showed them to these innocent newcomers. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.

“‘I’ve been given it all by my Father! Only the Father knows who the Son is and only the Son knows who the Father is. The Son can introduce the Father to anyone He wants to.’

“Then He turned in a private aside to His disciples, ‘Fortunate the eyes that see what you’re seeing! There are plenty of prophets and kings who would have given their right arm to see what you are seeing but never got so much as a glimpse; to hear what you are hearing but never got so much as a whisper.'” Luke 10:21-24 (The Message).

I wonder whether the disciples ever recognised how privileged they were!

Over a period of thousands of years the prophets had spoken of a time when God’s Messiah would come. Perhaps they did not clearly understand the reason for His coming, especially since each one had only a tiny piece of the puzzle. Peter wrote about this in his first letter, perhaps remembering the words of Jesus spoken here and realising with hindsight what He was getting at.

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that was to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, Even angels long to look into these things.” 1 Peter 1:10-13 (NIV).

The Twelve, and now this bigger group of seventy, were standing on the threshold of a new era, not only in their own history but also in the history of the world. Their exclusiveness was about to give way to a revelation of God’s love and mercy to all mankind that they had not even fully appreciated.

It’s no wonder Jesus was exuberant though He knew full well what lay ahead for Him and them before His worldwide mission would be fulfilled. Of course He knew the Father! He was one with the Father, in essence, nature and purpose. Before He left the Father’s realm and willingly laid aside His rights as God, He fully participated in the power and majesty of the Godhead.

He introduced them to the Father just by them being around Him, although it took a while for them to realise that. “‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?'” John 14:9-10a (NIV).

It was Jesus’ strategy to reveal Himself and His ways to those who were uncluttered with religion and theology. He bypassed the ones who were “qualified” through book learning, passed on by the ones who thought they were qualified, in favour of the simple ones who would take the truth the Holy Spirit revealed at face value.

Learning has value if it does not close one’s mind to the ministry of the greatest teacher of all, the Holy Spirit who is in residence in His temples. We, who are the temples of the Holy Spirit, have the author of the Book within us. We have an even greater privilege than the disciples because we have the advantage of access to the whole Bible and the revelation of many thousands who have recorded their insights into the Word through the Holy Spirit.

How much do you honour this honour?

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Three

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DAY TWENTY THREE

                                 “He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

For by Him all things were created:

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by Him and for Him.

He is before all things,

and in Him all things hold together.

And He is the head of the body, the church;

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead

so that in everything His might have the supremacy.

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,

and through Him to reconcile all things,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”

Colossians 1:15-20

It’s almost as though the apostle Paul cannot find the right words to describe how amazing Jesus is and great His role is in the whole of creation.  He made everything, He owns everything, He controls everything and He is everything and God holds Him up for us to admire, to honour and to worship!  Through the pen of the apostle, God is showing off His Son to all creation, human and spirit beings, to be admired, adored and honoured, and boasting about Him because of what He did.  That should give us great encouragement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Common Phenomenon

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A COMMON PHENOMENON

 “While they continued to stand around exclaiming over all the things He was doing, Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Treasure and ponder each of these next words: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into human hands.” They didn’t get what He was saying. It was like He was speaking a foreign language and they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. But they were embarrassed to ask Him what He meant.” Luke 9:43-45 (The Message).

This was the second time Jesus told His disciples about His impending suffering and death. The first was in the context of His identity. He had questioned them, in the environment of Caesarea Philippi, the “red light” district of Israel, who they thought He was. Peter’s reply indicated that they were at least a little farther along in understanding than the people who constantly thronged Him.

At the same time it was clear that both Peter and probably the rest of the disciples along with him, had no idea what “Messiah” meant. To them He was no more than a political figure sent to deliver them from Roman oppression. All His teaching and demonstration of the nature of the kingdom of God fell off them like water off a duck’s back.

Why did He repeatedly inform them of His coming ordeal in Jerusalem, even exposing them to what they had just seen and heard on the Mount of Transfiguration, involving two of their greatest historical figures? Was it to inform, to warn, to prepare them for what lay ahead? Was it to expand their understanding of who the Messiah was and what He had come to do?

Jesus was up against something in the disciples that is common in human nature. We all seem to be able to block our ability to understand what we refuse to believe. They refused to believe that suffering and violent death was included in the purpose of His coming. It was not on their agenda for Him because salvation from sin and reconciliation to the Father was not on their agenda. Their tunnel vision prevented them from accepting anything outside of their expectation.

Was there something in the words Jesus used that they could not understand? And yet they did not grasp what He was telling them! We know, from hindsight, exactly what He was saying because we have the benefit of everything that followed.

In the context of our own experience, there are many things in God’s Word that we don’t understand, not because the words are difficult, but because our brains block out our ability to understand those parts that do not fit our expectation.

Take for example, the way we perceive and experience God’s love. The Bible is a continuous story of the way God treats people because of His love for them. His mercy and compassion overshadow the story of His stubborn, rebellious and wayward people. He had every right to take them out and start all over again. And yet, time and again, He forgave them and rescued them from the consequences of their wickedness, Why? Because He loved them.

His Word assures us that He loved the world so much that He sent His Son to redeem all mankind. However, when we go through hard times, what do we do? We blame God and doubt His love! We cannot translate the love that provided a Saviour into a love that cares about us in our troubles and problems.

What is the solution? We find in His Word what our expectation of Him should be. He tells us what He wants to do and is capable of doing in our lives. We will only be transformed when we renew our minds with His Word instead of stubbornly holding on to our inadequate and misinformed ideas of who He is and what He had promised He will do.

What’s on your agenda for God that does not come from Him? Let His Word shape your thoughts and your understanding of who He is, what He says and what your expectation of Him should be, and you will come closer to the truth of what He has in mind for you.

Prophet-Killer!

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PROPHET-KILLER

“Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn’t know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. Herod said, ‘But I killed John — took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?’ Curious, he looked for a chance to see Him in action.” Luke 9:7-9 (The Message).

Who was this “ruler”, this Herod who admitted to being the murderer of the prophet John whom Jesus stated to be the greatest of all the prophets?

He was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, the one who both rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and was so afraid of a rival that he had all the baby boys in Bethlehem less than two years old put to death after Jesus was born. Herod Antipas was appointed tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and was prominent in the lives of both John and Jesus.

He divorced his Nabatean wife to marry the ex-wife of his brother Philip, and came under the scathing condemnation of John the Baptist for transgressing the marriage law of Leviticus 20:21. “If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. They will be childless.”

At the instigation of his wife, Herodias, Herod imprisoned John and later had him beheaded after a drunken promise to Herodias’ daughter who had danced at his birthday party. No doubt his conscience bothered him when that he thought that Jesus was John returned from the dead. At the same time he knew this could not be true because he had been responsible for John’s death and had been handed John’s head on a platter.

Herod had an insatiable curiosity to see Jesus in action. It was not because he had any desire to follow him but because he was intrigued by the whole idea of a “miracle worker”. Probably, like many ancient rulers, he needed some form of entertainment to keep him amused – like the minstrels and jesters of mediaeval times who played for the king.

Herod was a thoroughly secular man. He appeared to have no interest in anything to do with his inner life. He was an opportunist – marrying only for political gain and divorcing when it suited him to make a better match. He was also spineless and very much under the thumb of Herodias, choosing to kill John to satisfy her thirst for revenge because of John’s accusation rather than doing the right thing.

During Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Pilate heard that Herod was in Jerusalem and sent Jesus to him rather than condemn Him himself, since Jesus was a Galilean and under Herod’s jurisdiction. Herod was not interested in Jesus’ guilt or innocence. He wanted Him to entertain him with miracles and, when Jesus refused, he abused Him and treated Him with contempt.

 

Jesus stated that He had come to bring division, even splitting families right down the middle. No one could be left indifferent to Him. It all depended on what was in their hearts. Those who thirsted to know God would recognise His true identity while others would be offended by His claims and His yoke.

It’s still the same today. God has promised: “‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV), but there is a condition. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 (NIV).

Herod has no desire to know who Jesus was except to satisfy his curiosity and to his dying day he would never know. To the sincere seeker, Jesus is the Son of God, the one to whom had been given the highest name and the highest position in the universe. He is Lord, and to Him every knee shall bow!

Fruit Or Fruitless

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FRUIT OR FRUITLESS

“As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was trampled down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?'” Luke 8:4-8 (The Message).

How many sermons have been preached on this story!

As the crowds joined Jesus, He was aware that all of them represented one or even more of the soil types of which His story spoke. No doubt the scribes and Pharisees were among those whose hearts were so hard that the seed of God’s Word would remain exposed on the surface until the birds came and snatched it away.

What makes hearts so hard that the seed will never take root? Disobedience creates calluses in people’s hearts. God speaks and, because the time is not convenient, or because His instruction seems foolish or cuts across our own wishes or intentions, we do nothing. The next time His speaks, we hear but do nothing again. Eventually we no longer hear Him because our hearts have become deaf to His voice.

Sin dulls our sensitivity to His word. Self-will and the notion that we know better or that we are convinced we are right, like the Pharisees were, shuts us off from the influence of God’s Word until it no longer penetrates our minds and we dismiss it with contempt.

Gravelly soil represents the shallow person who is so caught up with the glitz and glamour of the world and the all the interests and entertainment that it can offer that the delicate roots of the Word of God find no place to anchor themselves. There’s hardness under the surface that resists the truth and the small plant of faith eventually withers and dies.

Ground that is full of weeds is like the person who has a divided heart. Jesus identified the weeds as “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” These are interesting concepts. To worry implies that you are split — you are here but your mind is there. You may be in church but your mind is somewhere else, churning over a situation or problem you cannot solve. You are unable to give your attention fully to God’s Word at that moment.

The deceitfulness of riches is equally distracting and you are equally split in your mind. Instead of being content with what you have now, you are continually living in the future — scheming and planning how you can get more money then. “Weeds” rob you of contentment and distract you from living in the present and in the place where you are here and now. Consequently God’s Word is gradually pushed out of your mind as you grapple with your worries and your ambitions.

The person who recognises the value of what God says and applies it diligently to his life, not allowing sin, pride or self-will to prevent its entry into his heart or the glamour, greed or worries of the present life to choke its growth, will receive the Word. apply it and show the fruit of its influence in the way he lives.

There is a little of each type of soil in each of our lives, depending on our attitude to the issues the Word addresses. We may resist what God has to say about any sin we are entertaining; we may be shallow or superficial in our attitude towards something God requires of us that touches our pride or our purses; we may have worries or ambitions that we are not prepared to relinquish to Him, and in those areas we will shut out the Word and become unfruitful.

The fruitfulness of the seed depends entirely on quality of the soil that receives it.

When God looks for fruit in your life, what will He find?