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Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Eleven – The Father’s Business

Book Reviews, , , ,

LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE FATHER’S BUSINESS

At the age of twelve, Jesus already knew that He was about the Father. His sojourn in the temple after His parents had set off home, had left the religious sages amazed at His understanding and His questions.

From the beginning of time, God was writing His story, and regardless of the intervention of sin, He continued to write, including the revelation of His mercy to sinners. His story climaxed in the revelation of Himself through His Son. Jesus came to reveal the true nature of the Father and to do His business on earth, to establish His kingdom in the hearts and in the society of His people.

He would restore His wayward people to Himself through His Son’s perfect life and sacrificial death so that, through them His kingdom would come on earth and He would be glorified through His redeemed people and His restored creation.

Since we have explored the meaning of sonship and how we relate to the Father as His sons and daughters, it is time to ask what our role is in His story and how we carry out that role as citizens of God’s kingdom.

God created us to have fellowship with Him and to reign over the earth as His vice-regents. Satan lied to the first pair, convincing them that he was in charge and that he could call the shots. They fell for his ruse and became slaves to his tyranny. Jesus exposed his lie and defeated him at the cross, cancelling our debt and freeing us from slavery to him.

Jesus showed us how to interpret and live in obedience to God’s instructions, contained in the Torah, His directions for living the best life. He also gave us access to the Father so that we can approach Him directly through Jesus, our high priest and no longer through human priests and animal blood.

Prayer is much more than talking to a deity, like pagan so-called “prayer”. True prayer is the right of sons and is our way of communicating with the Father. Why should we communicate with Him?  We communicate with Him for fellowship and directions for carrying out our mandate to manage the earth for Him.

Jesus was the model of true prayer. He had fellowship with the Father and received His instructions for carrying out the Father’s will. His testimony was that He obeyed the Father implicitly in everything. He gave His disciples a simple pattern to guide them in their praying – what we call “the Lord’s Prayer”.

He warned His disciples not to model their prayers on the hypocrites who prayed to gain the attention and approval of people, or the pagans who babbled to gain their god’s attention. We are to relate to God as a Father who knows our needs before we ask Him.

His pattern directed His disciples’ attention away from themselves and their needs and problems,and towards the Father who is everywhere and as close to them as their breath. They did not need to inform Him, advise Him or persuade Him to come into their situation. He was already there and fully aware of every detail. They were to recognise that is was God, their Father and the Creator and Ruler of the universe, “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and forgiveness”, to whom they turned. Their primary focus was to be on His kingdom, not on themselves and their needs.

They were to be concerned, first of all with their inner lives and God’s rule over their hearts so that they would be the agents through whom His kingdom would come on earth. Jesus, the living Word, was to be their daily bread, through the written word, feeding and nourishing their souls, like the manna in the wilderness that came from heaven to meet their daily needs.

They were to keep short accounts with people if they wanted to keep short accounts with God and to remember that they were their own worst enemy. They were to recognise and seek God’s strength to overcome the pull of their own selfish and greedy natures.

It was the will of God, above everything else that they were to seek and to do. The first step in knowing God’s will is to give Him complete charge over our bodies (Rom. 12: 1-3) and to renew our minds through the Word so that our lives will measure up to God’s requirements. With bodies and minds under the control of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to discern and approve God’s perfect will.

The purpose of prayer, then, is to have access to the Father so that we can partner with Him in managing the earth for Him and doing His will on earth. Our needs and concerns must fit into His story, not His story be directed by ours.

This is the true nature of a son – to be in submission and obedience to the Father so that we can serve Him and conduct His business on earth.

Summary of the Lord’s Prayer

Abba, Daddy, my source and the one to whom I belong, I turn away from my circumstances                       and become aware of you. You are here, all around me and as near to me as my breath. I                      honour you as holy by my words and my life.

May your just and benevolent rule come and may I be a part of bringing heaven to earth by                   doing your will, not mine, wherever I can and in whatever way I can so that those around me may see you in my life.

Feed me every day on Jesus, the living Bread.

Let me be merciful to those who offend me by cancelling their small debts, just as you have                been merciful to me by cancelling the huge debt I owed you.

Do not allow me to be pushed to the limit of my confidence in you either by severe trials or by alluring temptations, because you know how weak I am, and how strong my sinful flesh is.                      

Save me from the anguish of my own self-destruction.

 

 

 

The Agony Of The Hour

Bible Study, , , ,

THE AGONY OF THE HOUR

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ He said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. ‘Abba, Father,’ He said, ‘everything is possible to you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ (Mark 14: 32- 36).

It is painful to eavesdrop on a moment like this. How can we ever know what Jesus felt like as He agonised to the Father over the coming ordeal? Up to this point, His announcements to His disciples concerning His death were matter-of-fact and philosophical, but here, in the garden, the reality and inevitability of it all came rushing towards Him like a freight train. He had spent His last precious hours with His disciples. In a few minutes He would be ripped from them and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem to face the hostility and hatred that had festered for so long but was now coming to a head.  

He was human. He needed the reassurance and love of the men into whom He had poured His life for the past three years. He needed their nearness, even if they could do nothing for Him. He needed to know that they were there for Him when He looked around for them in the hostile territory of the enemy. He needed to know that they were still for Him even if the whole world was against Him.

As they walked together through the garden, the full moon lighting their way and casting eerie shadows across their path, Jesus became restless and agitated. They had never seen Him like this before. His usually calm and placid demeanour gave way to anguish and distress. Stopping a moment among the trees, He motioned for His men to stay there while He and His three closest companions went on ahead. Puzzled, they sat down to await His return.

Leaving the three behind on guard while He went a stones-throw from them and dropped to the ground in an agony of groaning, He entreated the Father to save Him from the coming horror. He could feel the hot breath of His betrayer on His cheek as he kissed Him, signalling to the mob that came to arrest Him who the “criminal” was. When they had Him in their clutches, there would be no escape. He would have to decide, then and there, whether He was willing to go through with it or not. There was still time for Him to slip away, as He had done in the past because His hour had not yet come. This was His hour. What would He do?

In characteristic fashion, Jesus turned to the Father. He had never acted outside His will, not for a second throughout His sojourn on earth, and He was not about to do so now. It must, as always, be the Father’s decision. He ached for release, but He would bow to the Father’s will, no matter what. Perspiration dripped from His brow, staining the soil around Him red with the bloody sweat.

Addressing His beloved Father in the most tender and intimate terms of endearment, ‘Abba,’ He pleaded for release. “Let this cup pass from me.”  What cup? There is a “cup” which everyone must drink. It is either a cup of suffering – a cup of God’s wrath, or a cup of salvation. For Jesus, it was the cup of God’s wrath, not just a cup, but the cup, the one that must be drained to the dregs for the sin of the whole world so that those who believe in Him would have no other cup to drink but the cup of salvation.

What was the cause of Jesus’ agony? Was it the thought of the physical pain that lay ahead of Him? Perhaps, but I believe that He faced something far worse than that. For the holy and perfect Son of God to be made sin for us must have filled His soul with revulsion. For Him to falter through the ordeal for even a second, to take His eyes off the Father and react like a mere man, would have doomed Him to eternal death like the rest of mankind.

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Heb. 5:7-9)

This was the moment! It was now that He had to decide, and with the decision, seal His own eternal destiny and the destiny of all mankind which hung on His choice. Listen to His heart. Yet not what I will, but what you will. The Father said nothing, and Jesus knew what His answer was. It had been planned from the beginning of creation.

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.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

He Did Not Listen!

Bible Study, , , ,

HE DID NOT LISTEN!

A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said, ‘Be clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. “See you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere (Mark 1: 40-45).

It began with a desperate man and ended with a frustrated Master. All because he did not listen!

A man with leprosy came to Jesus. Leprosy – or an unidentified skin disease which was classified as “leprosy” – was not only a devastating condition because of what it did to the individual physically, but also because of what it did to a person socially and spiritually. The sufferer was doomed to a life of isolation from the family and society and loathing from the rest of the unaffected population. He was “unclean” and therefore untouchable and an outcast.

Any disease or condition that made a person less than perfect, made the sufferer “unclean”, but leprosy was particularly abhorrent because of what it did to the patient. True leprosy attacks the nerve endings, causing the loss of feeling. No feeling, no pain – no pain meant any injury went unnoticed and soon turned into suppurating sores and eventual loss of extremities, leaving the person offensive and deformed.

For this man even to come anywhere near Jesus was risky. He was not permitted to approach people because his condition was infectious. How did he know that Jesus was his lifeline to wholeness and cleanness again? Perhaps he had heard, via the grapevine that there was a rabbi with extraordinary power to heal, moving around in Galilee. To his great delight, Jesus came to his community and he was not going to miss his opportunity.

Only one thing troubled him. He had no doubt that Jesus could heal, but would He want to heal him – a smelly, diseased, deformed outcast? He grabbed his opportunity when Jesus appeared. Falling to the ground before Him, he voiced his misgiving. “If you want to . . .” Jesus was indignant. What gave the man the idea that He would heal some conditions but not others? Did he think that leprosy was one of those sicknesses on His list of “not-to-heal” diseases?

Just to show the man that He was not fazed by what he looked like or smelt like or any of the taboos surrounding his condition, He not only spoke to the man, He also touched him. Jesus, how could you do that? Don’t you know that to touch an unclean person makes you unclean? Not Jesus! He was never contaminated by anyone’s “uncleanness”, not by disease, not by death. He made “unclean” people clean. The poor, sick leper, one minute a pitiful, stinking, offensive outcast, in an instant was transformed by a touch and a word. God’s kingdom had broken through this man’s plight and restored him to wholeness again.

‘Don’t tell anyone,’ Jesus commanded. But how on earth could he keep it a secret? People would recognise him and ask him what happened. Lepers don’t just suddenly shed their leprosy and its terrible consequences like taking off their clothes. But more than that, he just could not shut up. Wouldn’t you tell everyone, even those who didn’t want to listen, what had happened to you? After all, it’s not the kind of everyday thing to be cured of an incurable disease, now is it?

But telling his “good news” did exactly what Jesus did not want him to do. It tied His hands. He became an instant celebrity. People ran after Him for the wrong reasons. Instead of basking in the limelight, He had to retreat and hide, but they still sniffed Him out and swamped Him to fix their problems. He had not come to fix problems. He came to reveal the Father and to show them what life would be like if they returned to God and to obedience to His will.

Jesus was not then and is still not interested now in followers who can get what they want out of Him. He is calling people to follow Him who are so convinced of who He is that they put Him above everyone and everything else to join Him in His mission to make earth where they live a little bit of heaven. Every time we make life better for someone else through the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, we are doing what He prayed, “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Don’t you want to be a part of that?

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.

 

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

 

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

 

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

Devotion, , ,

DAY NINETEEN

 Then Jesus went with His disciples

to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them,

“Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him

and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. 

Then He said to them,

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. 

Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground

and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible,

may this cup be taken from me. 

Yet not as I will but as you will.”

 Matthew 26: 36-39

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth

He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears

to the one who could save Him from death,

and He was heard because of His reverent submission.

Hebrews 5:7

 Will we ever understand what it cost Jesus to say “yes” to His Father? We do not know the risk He took by becoming a man.  Had He ever once failed to trust His Father’s love through all the tests He had to endure, He would have suffered eternal separation from the Father because He would have sinned and been condemned along with us.   Jesus did not fail us then and He will not fail us now!