Questions, Anyone?

As we read through John 15-16, I want you to try to empty your mind of what you know about God, Christ, divinity, and everything else we believe as Christians. As much as possible, try to adopt a tabula rasa posture and read these chapters with a totally unknowing mind. Let me try this another way--imagine you are completely new to Christianity, don't know word one about God or anything, and the person introducing you to Christianity point to these chapters as  the first place to start. Do you think you'd understand what was being written?

That's what the disciples were--not exactly blank slates, but still somewhat unaware of Jesus' true mission. As Jesus spoke these words, I can imagine a question or two might have cropped up amongst the disciples:

1. Who is the "One who sent me"? (John 15:21)

2. Who is the "Counselor"? (15:26)

3. What is the "Spirit of truth"? (15:26)

4. What does "anyone who kills you" mean? (16:2)

5. "I am going away" Where? When? Why? (16:6)

6. "Unless I go away the Counselor will not come" Why not? (16:7)

7. How long is "a little while"? (16:16--they did actually ask this question in 16:17-18)

8. How will our "grief...turn to joy"? (16:20)

9. "A time is coming when I will...tell you plainly about my Father" Why not NOW? (16:25)

Jesus made it abundantly clear that all these questions would be answered when the Holy Spirit entered the disciples and worked through their hearts and minds to allow them to understand, and near the end of Chapter 16, it becomes clear that the first glimmer of acknowledgment was beginning to enter the disciples, because Jesus says one of the most profound verses ever in 16:31:

“You believe at last!”

The emphasis placed on the verse suggests the joy that Jesus felt, similar to when we're discussing something with people and it's clear they're not on the same page as we are, but we eventually get our point across. But he followed up that verse with one of my go-to verses, which is John 16:33:

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 If you recall, in the second year that we did our Sojourners Lenten series (and this would have been Spring 2006), that series consisted of devotions written by our members, and I wrote one based on this verse. My point was a very simple one--when Christ described the problems we'll have in life, he didn't use the word "might," "could" or "probably"--he said "WILL." Nothing in Christianity makes us immune to the vicissitudes of life, and any expectation to the contrary is sets ourselves up for failure and disappointment. We WILL have trouble in this life, but we take heart not because Jesus will pave the way for us in this world, but instead in the next. Problems on this Earth will only last as long as we live--problems AFTER that will be eternal. In these chapters, vitally important in their establishment of the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the disciples were being prepared to continue the ministry that Jesus began. Make no mistake, however--Jesus wasn't just talking to the disciples of that day, but to every person that bears the name of Christ to this day.

Scott

Whatever We Ask! (Nov 4)

"In that day, you will no longer ask me anything.  I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."
                                   John 16:23 NIV

Today, Jesus teaching is pointing the disciples ahead to Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is provided.  In that day, the Holy Spirit would reveal the relationship between the Son and the Father, would answer our questions, and would allow equipping for effective ministry. 

The reason Jesus instructed the disciples not to go out until after Pentecost was that they would not be effectively equipped for the ministry without the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

When we pray in the Lord's name, we can ask with confidence for the gifts and blessings the Father wishes we have.  Gifts like a growing relationship, guidance, Spiritual fruit of peace, joy, love, and self control are among the blessings God desires to provide to us via prayer.

Contrary to some popular belief and misconception, the Lord will not buy us a Mercedes Benz when we 'pray' for one.  Prayer is a very special relationship building gift from God through the Son by the Spirit.  As we mature, we can experience many blessings via a vibrant, growing, prayer life.

How do you set aside time to pray?

What kinds of things do you pray for?

How do you understand the difference between God's will and your will?

Pray for an abundant and growing prayer life.

In Christ,

David P

John 14 (Nov 3)

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me."
                             John 14:1 NIV

John 14 is an important chapter, for it leads to two points; the above verse points to rest, and Jesus says "I am," seven times.

The first message from today's passage, stay in God's will and one will find rest; the heart will not be troubled.  The word rest can be defined as the support on which things can be put, a state of inaction, freedom from strain, a pause for relaxation, something left after all other parts have been taken, to give a rest to, to not move, to refrain from acting, to take a short break from one's activities in order to relax, have a place in relation to, to remain in a certain state, to sit as on a branch.

Many of these definitions have a concept of relationship.  Certainly God wants to have a relationship with us to give us rest.  In the Old Testament, we also dealt with the concept of a remnant remaining, the rest.  To remain in a certain state, to have Christ in the heart, mind, and lips.  That is what might also come to mind when considering rest in relationship to God.  

Also when we are doing God's work, the work is not hard, and actually rest comes from doing the work.

The second message; Jesus states "I am," 7 times.  I am is the name God gave to himself when he spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.  Jesus is in fact a part of the "I am," the Triune God.  If anyone disputes the point, this is a good chapter to point the disputer to in order to attempt to shepherd the disputer with love to the point that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate and not a mere prophet.  Take a moment and circle each "I am," that Jesus says in Chapter 14.

Where do you look for a peaceful heart and rest?

What do you think about Jesus being the "I am"?

Pray to see Jesus as he truly is, to keep him in your heart, to provide comfort and rest in your heart.

In Christ,

David P

Except Through Me

We're all familiar with John 14:6, at least the first part, which states:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. 

We probably know the second part of the verse also, just not as well:

No one comes to the Father except through me.

When we put the two parts of the verse together, it will be all the explanation of Christianity that we'll ever need. God is whom we worship, Christ's death and resurrection removed the barrier of sin between us and God, and the Holy Spirit allows us to come to the Father. That's it--anything else is embellishing a simple message.

John 14-17 is amazing, in that we can see that even after three years in the presence of Christ, the disciples were still very confused on not only who Christ was, but what his purpose was as well. I'll discuss it at length with regard to tomorrow's reading, but even in today's, we saw no shortage of total and complete confusion on the part of the disciples as to what was happening before their eyes. All of John 14 is basically Christ talking with them and the disciples not getting his point at all, and as I've repeated over and over, we can't just "tut-tut" them and call them shallow and silly--Christ was upending their lives, predicting their deaths and establishing a whole new method of worship in one fell swoop. That's a lot to take in at one sitting.

And, as I've repeated over and over, the fact that we hold this Bible in our hands and can reference it, as well as an almost infinite amount of scholarship and commentary in seconds removes any excuse we ever might have had for not understanding this today. We know what Christ's duty was, and we know what our duty, no, our privilege is as a response to that sacrifice--find those that don't know it, and help them find the way and the truth and the life. No one will come to the Father except through Christ, but we just might be the conduit through which someone finds Christ in the first place. 

Scott

Christian Service

This will be one of the rare times where my post will be from the same Scripture reference that David used, but since I'll be going at it from a different angle, it won't be repetitive (at least not to me). And, for the record, David and I never discuss what we're going to write, stake out particular verses as our own or anything like that. In MY mind (and this is only for me), I've had  two basic rules during this year of blogging:

1. First come, first serve--if I sign on to the blog and see no entry from David, that means I'm free to write what I wish

2. If David's covered what I was going to discuss, so be it, and no worries. I can count on ONE HAND the number of times this has happened (actually, more like two fingers) where David covered the same material I was going to discuss AND said the same thing. If, however, I have a different spin on a passage already discussed, I'll plow ahead, as is the case today.

John was the only Gospel writer to describe Jesus washing the feet of the disciples (John 13:1-20), and there's some common sense as to why this might be--since only the disciples were in attendance for the Last Supper, we can assume that neither Mark nor Luke were present, leaving only Matthew as a possible relater of this incident. Regardless, I've always enjoyed this story because it helps me focus on not only what Christian service is, but how it is to be undertaken.

My mom used to say that I should have been a pastor, and she said it because of my speaking abilities. I told her, as I've told countless other people who have said similar things to me, that being able to preach a great sermon (the logical use for speaking abilities) ranks somewhere around #178 in importance in things necessary to be a good pastor. I'm too lazy to get up and find it now, but I believe I have the job description for Pastors lying around the house here someplace, and any normal person would be wearied just by reading it. I won't even insult the list by attempting to state how many functions are on it, but when you stop and think about everything our pastors do (and I hope you did sometime this past October during Pastor Appreciation Month), it covers activities inside our church, inside our school and outside our walls. It involves talking with people in every setting imaginable, from large to one-on-one. It involves being able to communicate in such a manner that the recipient understands what is being said, and more importantly, is inspired into action.

I'm not too bad at the stuff I've mentioned so far. One time, when I flippantly made my comment that preaching a sermon is #178, someone asked me "Well, what IS the most important then?" and I answered that next week by basically restating both 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9, where Paul describes the duties of deacons, elders and overseers--for a pastor, these requirements are even more so, but one thing is missing--a servant's heart, one in which service is given not out of expectation of thanks or gratitude but out of thanksgiving and response to the sacrifice that Christ made for us. In my mind, if a pastor has that servant's heart, everything else will take care of itself.

When Christ abased himself to wash the feet of his disciples, I'm sure they were horrified, and on the occasions where our pastors have done this for us at church, I know I feel odd, to say the least. In this modern age of not having servants like people used to, we're extremely unfamiliar with the idea of someone waiting upon us hand and (literally) foot. If in whatever endeavor of Christian service we wish to embark we enter into it with the expectation that we're merely using the gifts that God gave us to help those who can benefit from our service, we'll be in great shape. Again, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm not done with this topic by a long shot--I'll come back to it again at least twice when we read Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, passages that discuss spiritual gifts, but the topic itself isn't difficult to understand. Our job is to have that servant's heart and to never forget that no servant is greater than his Master.

Scott

Service (Nov 2)

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet.
                                         John 13:14 NIV

Jesus encourages and instructs us to follow His example of service.  What we have read throughout the Old Testament has pointed toward Jesus and His ultimate act of service, His death on the cross.  Jesus death and resurrection was done for all of us; yes for the very least of us.

Jesus encourages us to serve others.  One of the clearest teaching is in Matthew 25 where Jesus advises whatever we do for the very least we do for him and whatever we did not do for the very least, we did not do for him.

Acts of service like feeding the hungry, giving a drink, inviting in strangers, clothing the naked, tending the sick and visiting the prisoner are examples that Jesus used.  In our readings we have been shown by Jesus how to do the above. 

God and the Spirit will equip, will give words, and will give  strength when we are serving in Jesus' will.

How have your been lifted by the Spirit as you serve others?

Pray to see opportunities to serve.

In Christ,

David P

The One Question We'll All Be Asked

As we read the story of the Sheep and Goats as recorded in Matthew 25:31-46, there is one part in particular that gets my attention, and anyone who has heard me speak in various Bible studies over the years has no doubt heard me say this, but allow me to repeat myself.

Verses 37-39 state:

  ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

For those of you present during my presentation this past Sunday, I mentioned the 7 Deadly Sins, and stated that (at least in my opinion), it was pride that had an undercurrent throughout the other six. As we think on the verses above, the righteous are reflecting a humble view, one that shows them to believe themselves unworthy of the Lord. They are ashamed and embarrassed to be in the Lord's presence, at which point the Lord famously states in verse 40:

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Recall that at this point, EVERYONE is before the Lord, but NOT everyone will receive the same comforting reply. The part that I find so amazing is that EVERYONE will have the same reply to the Lord, but in the case of those who have been found wanting by the Lord, that answer will not suffice. When they state their reply to the Lord, it won't be with humility or embarrassment, but petulance and whining. They won't feel they've done anything wrong and will have no idea on what account they're being judged. And, as the reading makes abundantly clear, their ignorance won't be an excuse.

The important thing, as always, is knowing what to do with this information. Whatever we do for the least of our brethren, whatever we do not for glory, honor or praise, but out of simple service, that will make us sheep. However, if we make the mistake of serving only for the attention it might garner, or even worse, if we only serve when we think someone is looking, we take a huge risk in becoming goats. Philippians 2:10-11 states it quite clearly what will happen when the Lord returns:

¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Some people will be bowing out of awe and thanksgiving, and the others will be out of complete fear and the realization that the choices they made in life will have eternal consequences. In the context of today's reading, we have two responsibilities--the first is to resolve to be sheep instead of goats, and the second is to make sure as many people around us are sheep as well.

Scott