Tag Archives: above

Dead, But Alive

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DEAD, BUT ALIVE

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3: 1-4).

The ‘elemental spirits’ of which Paul spoke still hold sway over the minds of unbelievers, ‘But,’ said Paul, ‘you have died to the ideas and beliefs and philosophies which are lies spawned by the devil to keep you in bondage.’ You have died to the demonic spirits responsible for the lies you believed, and they no longer have the power to influence your life and do to you what you believed they could do.

How sad that there are still many believers in Jesus who also believe in the power of the devil to ‘attack’ or harm them outside of God’s control! We have to make up our minds, once and for all, about who is in charge. What we believe is of vital importance because it is what or who we believe that ultimately has the control of our lives.

Jesus’s first words, after His inauguration into His public ministry at His baptism, when He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, was to announce, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is here!’ What was He saying? ‘Get your thinking straight. God is in charge!’ Prophet Isaiah had the same message for his people when the world seemed to be turning upside down for them:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ (Isaiah 52: 7)

What better news can there be in a world that seems to be spinning out of control? The solution is to believe what is true, not what seems to be true or what those who think they are in charge are claiming to be true. The only thing that will steady us in a world gone crazy, is the knowledge and assurance that God’s appointed king is on His throne.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and their rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath saying, ‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain’ (Psalm 2: 1-6).

Paul’s counsel is: ‘You know it; now believe it!’ When you watch the news on TV or read the goings on in the newspaper, screen the information through the truth – who is in charge? Set your heart and mind on the non-negotiable truth that God has raised Jesus from the dead and given Him the name and the position of highest authority (Phil. 2: 6-11). In spite of appearances, Jesus Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15: 25).

Why, then, does the world, and often our own lives, seem to be so out of line with who we know God to be? Where is the peace and joy that Jesus insisted He came to bring? What about suffering and evil? Why do bad things happen to good people? How does that line up with God being in control?

It all depends on our expectations. If we think that the real life Jesus came to bring is about living a trouble-free existence in this life, we have misunderstood His message.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world’ (John 16: 33).

We cannot expect to live a perfectly untroubled life in an imperfect world. We are surrounded by imperfection and cannot escape the consequences of Adam’s rebellion. The good news is that God uses it all, good and bad, to shape us for the real world which is still to come.

God has one overriding purpose in permitting us to be part of the suffering – the purifying of our faith, that is, bringing us to the conviction that, in spite of everything, He is in charge and He is trustworthy.  Why? Because what we believe will determine who controls our lives.

In every adversity He demands that we keep our hearts and minds steadfastly committed to the truth that He is good and that He is in charge.

These have come (all kinds of trials -1 Peter 1: 6) so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1: 7).

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.

 

Intolerant But True!

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INTOLERANT BUT TRUE!

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:31-36.

Whose words are these? Jesus’ words? John the Baptist’s words? The Apostle John’s words?

My guess is that they are a little aside that John wrote to interpret John the Baptist’s defence of his lesser position as the friend of the bridegroom, not the Messiah. Sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it? Again, my guess is that, during John’s years as an intimate friend of Jesus, first as His disciple during His earthly ministry and then as an apostle to the world, he began to think like Jesus.

Over the years of his walk with the Lord, John saw in Him a man, but much more than a mere man. Jesus had spoken about heavenly things with such authority that He must have been there before His sojourn on earth. Unlike other humans who only came into being at their conception, Jesus existed long before His time on earth.

We cannot conceive of anything we have not actually experienced. How can we? No matter how lively an imagination we might have, whatever we conjure up is only fanciful. It has no foundation in fact. Science fiction is only that and only useful for entertainment. Jesus was not into sci-fi; He spoke about reality based on truth. This is the difference between Him and those who have created religious beliefs out of their imagination.

Why is it that people refuse to accept His testimony? The religious leaders clung tenaciously to their ideas and interpretations of the Torah because they believed that they were right. Underneath that was the need to impress the people and to hold onto the power they had over them by setting up and policing the rules they had made around the Torah. Underneath that, however, was something far more sinister and closer to the bone – they were greedy and wicked at heart.

Jesus diagnosed their problem, and the problem of everyone who refuses to believe in Him:

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19, 20.

John uncovered another amazing truth about the man, Jesus. It was His anointing by the Holy Spirit that made Him the man He was. Contrary to what we may think, Jesus set aside His deity when He came into the world, and lived and acted only as a man. He steadfastly chose to live in submission to the Father and not use His divine power to do anything.

At His baptism, He was affirmed by the Father and anointed by the Holy Spirit for His role as Messiah. Satan hounded Him to act independently of God but, to His dying breath He chose to be a true Son by trusting and obeying the Father, not doing His own thing. The Father, in turn, entrusted Him with the role of atoning sacrifice, and gave Him the highest name and authority in heaven and on earth.

Unfortunately for those who reject Jesus and declare that Christians are intolerant by insisting that He is the only way to the Father, they will discover in the end that they were wrong. The Bible could not have stated it more clearly:

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

Acknowledgement

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.

 

Trapped!

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TRAPPED!

“‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of the greater sin.’

“From then on Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.'” John 19:10-12 NIV.

Three versions? Who was Pilate to believe?

He thought he knew who had the destiny of Jesus in his hands. After all, he was the Roman governor with delegated authority from the most powerful person in the world to decide whether Jesus lived or died. He was frustrated with Jesus because He was making no effort to defend Himself. In a few sentences He could easily have persuaded Pilate of His innocence, and Pilate would have had no option but to release Him for the sake of justice.

Here is a lesson for us. Every person must decide for himself. Jesus’ life and words present the evidence. It is not His role to persuade people to believe in Him but to let the facts speak for themselves and to give them the choice to receive or reject Him for who He is. Is He or is He not the Son of God? If He is, then we give Him total allegiance because we can do no other.

Jesus’ response must have shocked Pilate. It was not Pilate who had the authority to decide on His fate. His authority was only delegated, and not from Rome. There was a higher authority to which Rome was accountable and so was Pilate. God was in charge of the whole universe, and not even Caesar could rule without His permission.

That should change the way we view life when things seem to have gone horribly wrong. Do things just happen? Randomly? Coincidentally? Not from Jesus’ perspective! Here He was, standing before the Roman governor, on trial for His life on trumped up charges.  Where was God? Where was justice? From our point of view it looked like things had spun out of control. But…

Peter 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 NIV.

This was a deliberate plan of God and Jesus was in on the whole thing. He did not want to be released because He had a mission to fulfil and He was carrying it out in obedience to the Father. When they tried to arrest Him in the garden, they could not until He handed Himself over. Now He stood before Pilate and watched him wrestle with his conscience, knowing that fear would override justice because it had to be.

The religious leaders used their power to persuade Pilate – the power of intimidation. Although Jesus was no threat to Caesar, and Pilate knew it, the Jewish hierarchy taunted him with the accusation, “If you let Him go, Caesar won’t like you. Jesus is guilty of treason because He says He is a king. If you let Him go, you are in cahoots with Him and that means you are against Caesar!”

Pilate was trapped. Whichever way he decided, he was in trouble. To which authority should he bow; to Caesar; to God; or to the Jews? After the day of Pentecost, Peter knew the answer. When he and John stood before the Sanhedrin and were commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, Peter courageously looked their accusers in the eye and replied:

“‘Which is right in God’s eyes; to listen to you or to Him? You be the judges!'” Acts 4:19 NIV.

Pilate made his choice and had to live with it for the rest of his life.