Tag Archives: spoke

Highly Privileged People

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HIGHLY PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with 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 glories that would follow. It was revealed them that they were not serving themselves 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 1:10-12).

In these three long and complicated sentences, what exactly was Peter getting at? We have to look at these thoughts in the context of what he had already written.

His readers were a rejected and abused people. Some of them were Jews who had embraced Jesus as their Messiah and others had come to faith in Christ from worshipping idols and practicing wicked things in the name of their religion. Instead of being recognised as upright citizens, they were despised and rejected by both Jews and Gentiles because they no longer fitted in. They would not acknowledge Caesar as Lord and they refused to take part in idolatrous worship and the practices of their pagan neighbours.

It was natural that they should feel like outcasts. One can sense, from Peter’s encouragement, that they were in danger of forgetting who they really were. It was his intention to show them who they were in God’s eyes regardless of what the people in the world thought of them and how they treated them. He had to put their circumstances into perspective so that they would not lose heart and go back to their old ways.

Far from their suffering being the evidence of God’s neglect, it was proof that they were genuine children of God. Rejected by the world? They were chosen, holy and beloved of God? Suffering for their faith? God was purifying their confidence in Him. They had reason to rejoice because, far from being the off-scourings of the earth, they were a privileged and blessed people.

They were so blessed, in fact, that they experienced what prophets and angels could not! God’s prophets of old were the most privileged of all His people. They were called and anointed with His Spirit to stand between God and His people. They stood in the presence of God to hear His word in order to speak it to His people. They had access to God’s counsel in ways which kings and people and even the priests did not. They not only understood what God was doing in the lives of His people in their current circumstances – they also had insights into future events.

It was from those who lived in intimate fellowship with God that we can draw an accurate picture of the Messiah long before He arrived on the earth. When we compare Jesus with the predictions the prophets made about Him centuries before, we come up with a perfect match. How else can we be sure that the man who claimed to be the Son of God and sent from God was who He said He was?

But there was one thing the prophets could not do – experience what they predicted because it was for a future time. They could only see it from afar. They would experience the benefits of His death because He was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ but they would never experience the temporal blessings which are part of the package of salvation.  However much they longed to be a part of what they had written, it was not to be.

Only those to whom Peter was writing and all those who follow in their footsteps of faith are privileged to be participants in the blessings Jesus, the Messiah brought when He came to earth.

Why is it important that believers go through the kind of things of which Peter wrote? Why does God not snatch us out of here the moment we believe? Firstly, of course, He needs witnesses to live and speak of His grace to a broken world. But secondly, and this is the part we don’t like, He takes time to sanctify and purify our hearts from the corruption of the world.

While we are here on earth in the midst of the world’s brokenness and wickedness, we are serving our apprenticeship for the life to come. God is grooming us for our role as co-rulers with Christ on His restored and perfected earth. He is teaching us to reign in life now so that we can reign with Him then. He cannot use untrained and untested rookies for so great a responsibility! How we function now will determine where we function then.

Far from being underdogs, Peter had to ensure that his readers understood who they were, why they were suffering and what their privileges were so that they would persevere, not with gritted teeth but with joyful purpose because, in God they were going somewhere – into the eternal realm of unimaginable blessing.

So are we if we hang in there!

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.

 

An Effective Barrier Against Truth

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AN EFFECTIVE BARRIER TO TRUTH 

“Finally the temple guards went to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why didn’t you bring Him?’ ‘No one ever spoke the way this man does,’ the guards replied, ‘You mean He deceived you also?’ the Pharisees retorted. ‘Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? No, but this mob that knows nothing of the law — there is a curse on them.’

“Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ‘Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.'”

“Then they all went home.” John 7:45-53 (NIV).

Ugh! These men are obnoxious!

They sent temple guards to arrest Jesus, but the guards could not bring themselves to do it. His words fascinated and mesmerized them. They had never heard anyone speak as Jesus spoke. They returned empty-handed to the religious rulers and Pharisees who were so sure of themselves that they dismissed them with withering contempt.

These men held themselves up as the measure of truth. Since none of their number had believed in Jesus (perhaps Nicodemus had kept his night-time visit to Jesus a secret in case he was dismissed with the same disapproval as the temple guards), of course Jesus was a trickster and a fraud! The temple guards were taken in by Him because they were just part of the gullible mob, according to them.

Nicodemus put in a rather weak protest, appealing to his colleagues at least to give Jesus a hearing. But his was a lone voice trying to get a fair deal for Jesus. His plea was swept aside with the same arrogant dismissal as the guards received.

Why did these men stick so tenaciously to their opinion of Jesus that they were not even prepared to give Him a hearing?

Their first argument was the typical everybody’s-doing-it reason. Since all of them (except Nicodemus, and he was of no consequence to them), dismissed Jesus as a fraud, that made them right. Their confidence was based on the flimsy premise that majority opinion must be the truth.

Unfortunately, in God’s eyes this kind of reasoning does not hold water. Even if the whole world chooses to believe lies, that does not make it the truth. Billions of people follow false religions, sincerely believing that they are right and even being willing to murder to defend their beliefs but that still does not make lies the truth.

Secondly, they clung to their superficial reason for rejecting Jesus because they refused to investigate the evidence. What were they afraid of? Would they have changed their minds about Him if they found out the truth? I don’t think so. This was not about Jesus; this was about them. It would take honesty and humility to listen to Jesus and to take Him seriously and they were not prepared to do that because they would have to forfeit their status in the community and bow to Him.

We may not think we are like the Pharisees but deep in every heart there lurks the pride that cuts us off from God. “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.”  Humility is the one thing that opens the door to revelation from God. Jesus told His hearers that, if anyone genuinely wants to know the truth, he will be able to discern the source of His teaching — from God or from Himself.

Once again, this conflict opens up new understanding about God, about us and about the depravity of our own hearts. My plea is that we put aside our right to be right and examine the evidence. We have only one source of truth — the Word of God. He has graciously given us an infallible point of reference to keep us on track. If we are humble enough to say, ‘I don’t know,’ we will be on the way to finding out the truth.

Let’s use it!

 

Speak To Your Storm!

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SPEAK TO YOUR STORM!

“One day He and His disciples got in a boat. ‘Let’s cross the lake,’ He said. And off they went. It was smooth sailing, and He fell asleep. A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ Getting to His feet, He told the wind, ‘Silence!’ and waves, ‘Quiet down!’ They did it. The lake became smooth as glass.

“Then He said to His disciples, ‘Why can’t you trust me?’ They were in absolute awe, staggered and stammering, “Who is this, anyway? He calls out to the winds and sea, and they do what He tells them!” Luke 8:22-25 (The Message).

So many interpretations to this story! Some think that this was a demonically inspired storm sent to drown Jesus and His men because they were on a mission to set a demon-possessed man free. Perhaps! But why not a perfectly natural phenomenon that happened all the time because of the geography of the region? Could it be that this storm was regulated and perfectly timed by the Father to expose what was in the hearts of the disciples?

So many lessons in this story! The way we understand it depends on perspective.

From the disciples’ perspective, they were in terrible danger. Jesus was asleep and out of the picture and, if He didn’t wake up, they were finished. They screamed out in terror, not really believing that He could do anything, but needing Him to be aware of what was going on anyway. They were victims of the circumstances and they were powerless to change them. Fear drove out all their confidence in Jesus and paralysed their sane thinking. They had not yet learned to use the power of the Word to save the day.

 

Jesus, on the other hand, was perfectly at rest, fast asleep, storm or no storm! He had been given a commission to go to the other side of the lake. There was someone there who needed Him and the storm was no deterrent. No doubt He was acting in obedience to the Father. Whatever stood in His way would be brushed aside as of no consequence.

Unlike His disciples, Jesus was never controlled by circumstances. If circumstances were the controlling factor, His life would have been a roller coaster ride and who knows where it would have ended? He was in intimate contact with His Father and took His instructions from Him. Like Peter, when Jesus invited him to walk on the water, Jesus walked on the Word of God. His perspective was always the kingdom of God, God’s rule, God’s instructions and God’s way.

Jesus also used circumstances to reveal His Father’s power and glory. Whatever obstacles stood in the way of restoring wholeness in any situation, Jesus spoke, the obstacle was removed and those present caught another glimpse of the true nature of the Father.

The death of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, was one such incident. Jesus was not fazed when He received the news of Lazarus’ illness. “When He heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.'” John 11:4 (NIV).

God’s Word is powerful, not matter from whose mouth it is spoken. The disciples eventually learned this lesson. The book of Acts is full of incidents where the power of the spoken Word of God changed situations for them. Disease, demons and even death fled when they spoke to them, just as Jesus had done when He was with them in the flesh.

How sad that so many of us believers don’t really believe this. We rehearse our woes and even pray them to God instead of confidently speaking out what God has spoken. Jesus’ rebuke is equally true of many of us, ‘Why don’t you trust me?’ Jesus is Lord over all things, even wind and weather.

Speak to your storm! It must obey.