Tag Archives: greater

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – A GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE

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A GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE

“On Judgment Day the Ninevites will stand up and give evidence that will condemn this generation because, when Jonah preached to them, they changed their lives. A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about ‘proofs’. On Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will come forward and bring evidence that condemns this generation because she travelled from a far corner of the earth to listen to wise Solomon. Wisdom far greater than Solomon’s is right in front of you and you quibble about ‘evidence’. Luke 11:30-32.

Jesus condemned the people of His generation because they refused to accept the evidence staring them in the face that His words, His works and His ways all testified to His identity as the Son of God. They preferred to keep following Him around and demanding signs because He was the latest person on the popularity polls.

Both the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba were held up as examples of people with more discernment than the people of God in Israel. They had only one opportunity – the Ninevites were pagans, the cruellest nation on earth in their day – and God sent a prophet to warn them of the consequences of their ways. Their response was startling, considering Jonah’s five-word message! They repented to a man, and God spared them.

The Queen of Sheba came from far, probably from Africa; no jet airliner to transport her, not even a motorised vehicle on a tar road. But she made the effort to listen to a mere man because of his supernatural wisdom.

The people of Jesus’ day had the very Son of God with them, teaching them and demonstrating the kingdom of God with signs and wonders and they refused to believe Him.

But what of my generation? When I read magazines, watch TV, listen to the radio, I am aware that God is conspicuously absent. The only mention of God is the use of His name as an expletive. How blind are people today! The evidence of God’s presence is everywhere – “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Psalm 19:1 (NIV).

Just like the Apostle Paul’s contemporaries, this generation stands guilty before God. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 (NIV).

No generation has had more opportunity to discover the truth about God than this one. His Word blankets the earth in both written and spoken form and yet…godlessness and wickedness are on the increase. What chance does this generation have if the people in Jesus’ day stood guilty and condemned before God because they refused to believe?

Truth Is Indestructible

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TRUTH IS INDESTRUCTIBLE

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and, therefore, speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4: 4-6)

Really, John! Are you so arrogantly cocksure of yourself? How can you say that you are from God and that anyone who knows God listens to you? What about the times you said things that drew a rebuke from Jesus?

No, John was not being arrogantly cocksure but calmly confident for several reasons. Let’s examine them one by one.

  1. John was a disciple of Jesus. He was not chosen simply to trail around behind Jesus for three years. Discipleship in Jesus’ day carried with it some very specific privileges and responsibilities. He was chosen because his rabbi believed that he could become more than his rabbi did. He was to learn to imitate his rabbi in everything He said and did until he was an exact replica of his master. He was to learn His teachings (His yoke) and pass them on without adding or taking anything away. He would eventually do more than his rabbi did because Jesus was at the Father’s right hand representing him to the Father (John 14:12).

 

  1. As a disciple of Jesus, John carried His authority to interpret His yoke in the spirit and disposition of his rabbi. Jesus taught His disciples that His yoke (His interpretation of the Torah according to God’s original intention) was mercy and His disposition was gentleness and humility (Matt. 11: 28-30). This was the yoke John was to pass on to those who believed in Jesus through his witness.

 

  1. John was equipped with the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the believers on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus promised His disciples that the Spirit whom He would send in His place would lead them into all truth and would remind them of everything He had taught them. They could rely on Him to represent Jesus and His teachings accurately.

 

  1. John was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Although at the time he was writing this letter, he may not have been aware that it would be included in the Holy Scriptures. It was nevertheless recognised as inspired and authoritative by the early church fathers as they accepted the writings of the apostles and others into the canon of Scripture.

For these reasons, John had the right to claim authority to write these words of confidence, not arrogance and to claim that he and his fellow disciples were from God and spoke for God. Unlike the claim of the papacy down the centuries who believe that they are the vicars of Christ and whose words carry more weight than the very Word of God, John wrote, not to contradict the words of Jesus and set up his own standards but to affirm and expand on Jesus’ teachings in the spirit of Torah and in harmony with the nature and teachings of his rabbi.

The Spirit of truth in John would never allow him to set up his own standards. John was assured that, as long as he taught the truth revealed to him by his Master, and in harmony with the nature of Jesus, he could be sure that he was in line with the revelation Jesus brought about the Father and His work through Jesus. Those who received his teaching as the truth became part of a fellowship of believers in whom the Holy Spirit resided and continued to reveal the truth about the one in whom they believed.

The truth is indestructible. Those who received and believed the truth Jesus taught and steadfastly obeyed His words, could not be caught up in the ways of the world and stray from the path of obedience to God. The world represents beliefs and ways that are opposite to the kingdom of God. It is impossible to think and behave like those who are in the world’s system and to live as citizens of the God’s kingdom at the same time.

John assured his readers that their citizenship in the kingdom of God nullified the world’s power over them because they had, living within them the Holy Spirit with all His power and truth. No amount of false beliefs propagated by unbelievers could overpower and neutralise their confidence in the truth of God. They had the edge because lies will never outlive truth.

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

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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:

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

 

 

An Unbreakable Promise

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AN UNBREAKABLE PROMISE 

When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.’ And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath (Heb. 6: 13-17).

We need to back up a bit to get the gist of what this writer was saying. His readers were suffering persecution at the hands of both Jews and Romans because of their allegiance to Jesus. To the Jews, Jesus was a blasphemer who had been executed by the Romans for treason because the charge of blasphemy was not on their list of crimes. To the Romans, Jesus’s claim to be the Son of God and Lord put Him at odds with Caesar. His followers, therefore, were to be exterminated.

To avoid persecution, they were tempted to go back to Judaism since the Roman government still tolerated the Jewish religion. The writer’s persuasive argument was that Jesus was greater than everything they held dear in Judaism because He was the fulfilment of the types and shadows of their religion. To go back would be to forfeit all the blessings and promises Jesus fulfilled.

God’s promises are backed by His unchangeable nature and are therefore unbreakable. Although Abraham was an old man and his wife both barren and beyond childbearing, God promised that he would be the father of a great nation and have many descendants. Abraham looked beyond the circumstances to the promise of God which had to be fulfilled or God was a liar.

Abraham received what God promised after many years of waiting because he believed God. What was his secret? Faith and patience! If God said it, He would do it, no matter how long it took to keep His promise. It was not about trustworthiness but about timing. God is always painting on a bigger canvas and writing a bigger story than we can see or understand. What He was doing in Abraham’s life had to fit in with every other circumstance around him.

God’s promise to Abraham was so crucial to His salvation plan that He confirmed it with an oath – not because His word was untrustworthy but because He wanted Abraham to know how important this promise was. In the natural it seemed an impossibility for him and Sarah to conceive a child. Abraham’s faith had to rise above human possibilities to take hold of the divine promise and to fix his faith on God’s word and not on his reason.

Intervening years were not an issue to God. The deadness of Abraham and Sarah’s reproductive organs were not a problem. God’s power to intervene overshadowed these natural obstacles. Abraham’s confidence in the trustworthiness of God’s promise was the crux of the matter. Was he prepared to take God at His word and see it through to fulfilment no matter what?

Abraham had to walk a long road of learning to trust God before he was willing to stake everything on God’s promise. He left his homeland on God’s instruction, a God he did not know, and went to a land he did not know because God had told him to go. He settled among strangers, sometimes hostile to him, as a nomad, because God said so. He had no idea what God was doing with him but he trusted Him anyway.

God gave him a son when his heart was ready to receive the child and to raise him to believe in God. He even went to the point of sacrificing his son because God told him to do it. So confident had Abraham become in the promises of God that he was in perfect harmony with Him no matter what He told him to do.

It was this kind of faith that God needed and that He honoured in a man who was tried and tested. The way was open for Him to keep His word because His promise, backed by His oath was Abraham’s anchor.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised. That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Rom. 4: 18-22).

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.

 

Love’s Greatest Test

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LOVE’S GREATEST TEST 

“‘You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens so that, when it does happen, you will believe.

“I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now; let us leave,'” John 14:28-31 NIV.

Strange words for the bewildered disciples! How could they grasp what was foreign to their experience? But for the Holy Spirit who would make sense of it all as time went on, this entire interlude would be lost to them.

“Going away and coming back”? And yet He kept talking about dying! No one in their experience had ever died and came back again. As for being glad because He was going away! That did not make sense. If they loved Him how could they be glad because He was leaving them?

Ah, but they did not yet understand the implications of all these mysteries! This was not only about Him; it was also about them. Going to the Father had huge spin-offs for them.

Salvation accomplished, Jesus would return to the Father to present His blood as a perpetual sacrifice for sin. He would be exalted to the highest place and be given a name above every other name. He would take up His role in the presence of the Father, representing them to Him as High Priest and Mediator. He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever as His other self, to be in them, to teach them about Him and to transform them into His likeness.

Is it any wonder that He told them to be happy because He was going to the Father?

However, between the present moment and His return to the Father lay the biggest test of His love for the Father — the cross! Time was running out for Him. He had an appointment to keep that would be perfectly timed to coincide with the exact moment when the first Passover lamb would be slaughtered by the high priest. Time with His disciples was coming to an end. He had given them everything He could while He was with them. It was now over to the Holy Spirit to help them internalise what they had heard during His time with them.

The prince of this world was poised to strike; he thought he was gearing up for his greatest victory, not realising, even from experience that he could never take Jesus on and win. How many times had he already tried and come out of it with egg on his face!

He had his human cronies lined up; Judas the traitor, the religious hierarchy, Caiaphas the high priest, the temple guard and Roman soldiers, Pilate, Herod and the fickle mob — quite a formidable array from a human perspective! Who were Jesus’ supporters? No one because even His most loyal followers deserted Him! He took on the world and the evil spiritual forces behind it single-handed.

Jesus made a most interesting statement. What was He about to prove? Not that He loved the world but that He loved the Father and authenticated that love by being obedient to Him to the very dregs of the cross. Why not the world? He loved the world through His obedience to the Father.

What was the point of Adam’s test in the Garden of Eden? There was nothing morally wrong with eating fruit from a tree in the garden. It was not the tree but the instruction that counted. God set up a test to check the strength of Adam’s love for Him. Love sets boundaries within which the beloved can move freely without fear. The strength of love is demonstrated by the beloved’s willingness to live within those boundaries because he trusts the one who loves him. And he failed the test.

For Jesus, the test of His love for the Father was His willingness to obey Him to the death without resistance — even at the hands of the one who hated Him the most. His entire human life was a declaration that He loved the Father and that He loved Him through the bitterest suffering any human can endure. Period!

“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. “He Himself bore our sins” in His body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness: “by His wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:23, 24 NIV.

Greater Works

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GREATER WORKS 

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask anything in my name and I will do it.” John 14:12-14 NIV.

At face value there was nothing unusual about Jesus’ statement that His disciples would do greater things than He was doing. This was what was expected of the disciples of rabbis who had authority. They would take their disciples beyond where they were.

But there was something more than what was expected of the ordinary disciples of a rabbi with authority. This was Jesus speaking, not just any rabbi. “Going to the Father” had greater implications than just dying and was the key to the “greater things”.

1. Going to the Father meant that He was returning to the one who sent Him. Jesus was on a mission to the earth. He did not come into existence at His conception.

“He was with God in the beginning” John 1:2 NIV.

2. He had come from the Father to accomplish something and He was returning to the Father because He had completed what He had come to do.

“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burn offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, my God'” Hebrews 10:5-7 NIV.

3. The Father had sent Him to the earth to reveal Him to His people. He had become distorted in the minds of His people through centuries of rabbinic study and interpretation which had overlaid their ancient Scriptures with layers and layers of rules and additions until He was no longer recognizable as the God who revealed Himself to His people through the prophets.

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Hebrews 1:1-3a NIV.

4. He came to restore what was broken at the Fall. Adam and Eve broke the unity between themselves and God through their disobedience, and brought the whole universe into disrepair. They incurred an unpayable debt which Jesus came to pay to restore them to unity and fellowship with the Father so that they could fulfil the Father’s will.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NIV.

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:20, 21 NIV.

5. He came to create a body (the church) of which He is the head, to reproduce Himself on the earth and to bring heaven to earth by the way they live. Through His death which provides forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father, He is building a family of sons and daughters who are just like Him to represent Him to the world and to do the works He did and much more.

How can we do greater things than He did? Perhaps not greater in nature but greater in volume because, wherever His children are, He is by His Spirit in them and He is able to spread His message of God’s kingdom by multiplying Himself through them across the entire globe.