300 Days with the Early Church

 What if we could spend time with the leaders of the early church?  What if we, rather than facing the frustration of hundreds of years of tradition, could be with those who knew Jesus best.  If we were invited to spend a year walking, watching and listening to the first century Christians would we do it?

In a way we can.  Beginning January 1 I will be post devotions from the New Testament History, Letters and Prophecy. Each month I will post 25 devotions.  If you miss a day you can catch up before month end. If something intrigues you and you want to send and extra day on that subject you will have the time.

Please join me each day as we send 300 Days in the Early Church.

In the Cause

Charlie

John 21:15 - 25

 John 21:15 - 25 

In a way John concludes his gospel at the end of chapter 20. But it is as if this is such an important point and powerful story that he wants to include one more emphatic remembrance.  In that story is the core lesson for us as disciples. After the miraculous catch of fish Jesus has a painful and restorative conversation with Peter. Jesus, after this conversation, tells Peter, “follow Me”. It is sort of a second call to discipleship; the restoration of Peter is completed. But then Peter notices that John, the Beloved disciple, is following as well. Peter asked Jesus, “Lord what about this man?” We can all learn a profound lesson from Jesus's answer. In short Jesus says “Mind your own business which is to follow me”. 

Mind your own business is great advice for the disciple. That is not to say that we are to be unconcerned about the needs of others. This is about staying focused on our walk, our discipleship. Some scholars see in this passage a rebuke directed toward the early church rivalries that apparently existed. Paul mentions such rivalries in 1st Corinthians. How much harm could have been avoided over the years of the church, and in our own lives if rather than attending to the faith walk of others we energetically focused on “our following” Jesus. This is the conclusion to the message of the Gospel of John, and it is the objective of our lives, “Mind your own business and that business is to follow Jesus!”

“Lord, help me make the focus of my life to follow You. AMEN”

John 21:1 - 14

 John 21:1 - 14

We often, and almost exclusively, think of blessings in terms of increase, receiving something, or in having. We nearly never think of blessing in terms of frustration but sometimes in our walk as disciples we are blessed with frustration. In Peter's confused, upset, and chaotic life during the week after the resurrection he returns to Galilee. In the company of six other disciples Peter says, " I'm going fishing". The verb here indicates a linear action, in other words ‘on going and without end’. This was no recreational day trip nor way of getting a meal. Peter was ending his life as a fisher of men to become a fisherman of fish. Life before Jesus was hard, but it was predictable. It may have lacked zest, and that fire in the belly, but at least you didn’t have great hopes crushed by a Roman cross.  Not to mention the confusion of the enigma of a resurrected but oddly reclusive Messiah. He was no doubt emotionally, physically and financially exhausted. His return to fishing would be a blessing. Get a job, settle down, and stop chasing all over the place pursuing a wild dream. With six helpers he would build a fishing business again. He could not have counted on the blessing he did want the blessing of frustration: "and that night they called nothing."

How many times do we look up on frustration as a curse, or demonic effect, or the displeasure of God unfairly directed at us? It is possible that frustration can be wholly negative but it may also be something positive in disguise. If we assume frustration is negative we must assume we are correct in all our assessments and decisions along the way. That is an assumption we should be reluctant to make.

All night Peter did what he was best at; fishing. Come daybreak someone from shore asked for fish. Peter replied, “I got nothing”. In his heart or mind he may have thought “I can't do anything”. Which ironically is the exact place we have to be for God to make the most of us.

“Lord, in Your blessing of frustrations give me strength.  AMEN”

John: 20 24 - 31

 John: 20 24 - 31 

Our faith is always moving and transforming either positively or negatively. It is possible for the passionate Faith to cool, to grow cold to become unbelieving. It is possible for a small cool faith to grow large and powerful. We must never forget that without tending to faith it will drift toward unbelief. Sometimes, though not always, that happens as a result of disappointment.  We must understand the difference between expectation and experience. It is either disappointment or delight.  With this in mind we can perhaps understand Thomas’ case a little better.   If our expectations are exceeded we tend to be delighted. But if circumstances fall short of our expectations we tend to be disappointed. The greater the distance between our experience and our expectation is the greater the impact of our delight or disappointment.

Thomas was no weakling. In John 11:16 when Jesus was going back to Jerusalem Thomas thought it was a suicide mission but was willing to go anyway. The cross was a huge disappointment to Thomas. Whatever his expectations, the experience of the cross left Thomas terribly disappointed. Perhaps Thomas was prone to discouragement and depression. Such a person when in the midst of a low point can't accept good news easily. When Thomas heard that Jesus was alive his despondency overwhelmed the good news he heard and he didn't believe. We mustn't think of the disciple as emotionless paragons of faith and virtue. At this point Thomas was a hot mess of emotion. 

Jesus appears to Thomas and says"... Be not unbelieving but believing." Notice three key points. First Thomas is apparently moving toward unbelief.  Unbelief is more than doubt but is a hardness of heart, he was in real spiritual danger. Second there is a choice of the will to believe or to be in unbelief. That will decide whether he will become believing or not. Belief at times is not easy but it can be done if we will it.  Third, we need to be compassionate with those dealing with disappointments. Jesus loves and cares for Thomas and in that love challenges him. Struggle on, struggle on but let our will be resolute.

“Lord, help me in the struggle to have a determined will. AMEN”

John 20:19-23

 John 20:19-23

John's description of Jesus is meeting with the disciples for the first time after the resurrection is a summary. If every reaction to His appearance and a detailed description of the conversations were recorded the Gospel of John might be 10 times longer than its current length. So what John did record must have really stood out to him. Much of what is recorded seems strange to us.  We can mature in our faith simply by wrestling with what is said and learning from it. In verses 21 and 22 we have a John's version of the Great Commission. John does not record the Great Commission at Jesus's Ascension but in an earlier conversation.

John records that, “Jesus breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’”. While there a vast number of questions have risen by this passage let's look at two key points. First is proximity, in breathing on them Jesus gets right up to them. The phrase “close enough to smell their breath” comes to mind. The Great Commission will never be fulfilled at a distance. There is value in distance learning, podcasts, in books, and recordings of sermons. But these can never replace the up-close-and-personal contact of being close enough to smell someone's breath. 

Second, the passing on of life is what the Spirit is about. We do not have time now to trace the “breath of God” from the creation of Adam to the Great Commission but without the breath of God there is no life. We get lost in the weeds with obsessive discussions about the gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues, healing, words of knowledge, etc. that we missed the main point. We receive life's breath from the Holy Spirit so that we can pass it on by sharing the gospel message.  We are made alive so that we can share life.

“Lord, may Your life pass into me and from me to the world around me.  AMEN”

John 20:11-18

 John 20:11-18

Mary demonstrates the two greatest challenges we face as disciples when it comes to the practical application of our faith.  Mary, having brought the disciples to the tomb, has remained after Peter and John left.  Then it gets weird.  She was distraught over Jesus' death, that was exacerbated by finding the tomb opened and the body gone.  Peter and John believed her account but offered no answers or support.  She looks in the tomb and sees two angels, now she is really freaking out.  Next she turns around and there is someone there, the gardener perhaps.  This person asked her why she was crying and she explained the empty tomb, the absence of Jesus' body in natural terms.  We can’t judge Mary too harshly.  Emotional sadness combined with confusion and an utterly new experience could leave anyone in a befuddled state.  It is here we see in Mary our two biggest struggles.

First is the difficulty in recognizing Jesus.  “When is it that the Lord is calling or leading me and when is it my own agenda?” This is a question we need to ask ourselves often.  Is this the Lord’s direction or am I pursuing what I want and blaming it on Jesus?  Anyone who is serious about being a disciple will sooner or later struggle with this aspect of following Jesus.  But in this passage we see the atmosphere where we find the answer.  When Jesus called her name she knew it was Him.  The key is a personal knowledge of Him.  She knew Him so well that in spite of all the obstacles of emotion and circumstances of grief when He spoke she knew it was Him.  The more we listen and obey the easier it is to recognize His voice.  

Which brings us to the second challenge.  When she recognized Him she wanted to cling to Him.  This verse is somewhat ambiguous and has produced some interesting interpretations.  There is a saying, “There are no times like the times when we can say it is just like the old times.”  Jesus was back and now they could get the whole gang together and return to the traveling, teaching, and healing circuit ministry.  Just like before, hanging out with Jesus.  Humans are incurably nostalgic, we all want to go back to that preferred vision of the past.  As Christians today we have a tendency to want to get with other believers and enjoy a warm soft comfortable serving or nostalgia.  Then and now Jesus has a different agenda in mind.  His return to our Father will put an end to any “just like old times” dream.  Now is the time to get ready for the new normal, Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit descended.  Now is not the time to huddle in our group or church fellowship.  It is the time to accomplish the Father’s agenda.  

“Lord, even in my confusion help me hear Your voice and do Your will. AMEN”

John 20.1-10

 John 20.1-10

The most dramatic reversal in all of history was the least expected and therefore appeared confusing and chaotic.  Mary Magdalene, who was no doubt highly emotional, arrives at the tomb and finds it empty.  She runs to Peter and no doubt is even more emotional than before and offers the only solution she can fathom: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.”  We shouldn’t miss the point that the Christian religion and the first witness didn’t begin with great faith but with fear, frustration and a naturalistic explanation.    

Peter and John run to the tomb.  We are not told their state of mind.  Very likely they felt the only way to get this hysterical woman to calm down was to go to the tomb, the correct tomb, and show her everything was normal.  John, being younger outruns the older Peter, but stops going only as far as the entrance of the tomb.  He bends over and looks in the grave and sees that the body isn’t there.  He also notices the grave clothes, but doesn’t make the connection of what is would mean.  Think about it if the authorities, Jews or Romans, were to move the body, why unwrap it first?  Peter arrives rushes in sees the same thing in greater detail.  The evidence is there but what conclusion should they draw?

Verse 8-9 creates for us an enigma. John is said to believe in verse 8 but verse 9 indicates that they, note the plural, did not understand the essential nature of the resurrection.  What was it that John believed?  At this point it wasn’t the resurrection and all of its implications.  At this point what John believed was that the hysterical, crying, emotional woman was right the body was gone.  The beginning of Christianity was not all that auspicious.  It didn’t begin with a powerful and dynamic heroic mature faith.  It began with a whimper and a stumble.  But that was only the beginning.  If our faith is not always heroic and dynamic, if/when we stumble and fail we need not despair.  We are in good company.  What we do is get up and move forward, and we will meet Jesus.  He will make sure of that.

“Lord, when I stumble, help me to carry on.  AMEN”

John 19:36-42

 John 19:36-42

Four little words create a problem for us in verse 38.  Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus but these four words describe him: “but a secret one”.  The issue is further complicated by the motivation of “for fear of the Jews”.  Joseph’s discipleship is not doubted.  He is not described as one who was a former disciple and walked away.  He is not like the rich young ruler who came to the moment of discipleship and at the last moment went away sad because he was rich.  Joseph is a disciple!

We can ask the question, “Whose ideal is this secrecy?” We often jump to the conclusion that the secret was kept by Joseph as his own desire to protect himself.  But that is a conclusion we suppose not a statement of scripture.  We may project our timidity on to Joseph and assume that his motive would be like ours.  But maybe there is a different motive and explanation.

How is it that Joseph was able to go directly to Pilate and request the body?  For a member of the council to go directly to the governor to ask for Jesus’ body has caused some scholars to propose that Joseph had a friendly relationship with Pilate.  Additionally it would have been unlikely that the Roman authorities would have turned the body of a supposed revolutionary over to a disciple of that revolutionary.  Joseph was in the perfect position to secure the body after death and arrange for the secure burial.  (We must never loose sight of the critical importance of the secure burial.)  His unique role was made possible by two things his loyal discipleship and its secret nature.  He was more of a clandestine operator than a coward. 

The point is not that we should be a secret disciple nor that we should be vocal and outspoken about our faith.  The point is that we should be a disciple that will leverage all of our opportunities, relationships, and connections to accomplish the purpose of our Master.

 

“Lord, help me use all that I have for You. AMEN.”

John 19:28-35

 John 19:28-35

Everything the Father had given the Son to do had been accomplished.  The obedience that would accomplish the redemption of sinful man was fulfilled.  Jesus has a sip of wine from a sponge and utters the words “It is finished”.  The Greek word there was used in business and meant “Paid in full”.  Having done this Jesus gave up His Spirit.  As disciples we can never grasp the full enormity of this moment, but we can always try.  To daily return to the cross gives meaning to our faith and strength to our practice of that faith.  

That is important to us in view of what John recorded next.  The “Jews”, John’s code word for the evil religious elite, requested of Pilate to have the legs of the crucified broken so they would die quicker.  They wanted them dead so they could be taken down before the beginning of the Sabbath in keeping with the Law.  Do not miss the irony or better yet hypocrisy of the moment.  These same people who have conspired to murder an innocent man, tried Him in an illegal court, convicted Him after the false testimony of lying witnesses which they provided, are now concerned with fastidiously keeping the Law concerning an important Sabbath.  With one hand they propagate the greatest of evils with the other they carefully keep religious regulations?  Is something wrong with this picture?

We must be constantly vigilant to check ourselves and see if we have become like the “Jews”.  Where our keeping of regulations is inconsistent with holy living.  These men demonstrated the capacity of all of us to use religion as a means to our own personal end.  

“Lord, save me from all kinds of hypocrisy, God save me from myself. AMEN”  

John 19:17-27

 John 19:17-27

Jesus lived in a world that was commonly brutal.  Even the best of times people were living in the presence of pain and suffering.  Without modern medicine, we take for granted, illnesses and injuries were endured with little or no relief.  Death came often and at a much younger age and when it came there was little available to ease the passing.  We as a society try to blunt the horrors of life.  We have ratings for movies to protect children and we have warnings “The following program contains graphic and disturbing images.  Viewer discretion is advised.”  Not so in the world in which Jesus lived and died.  Public crucifixion was as public as possible.  It was meant to be a declaration of the power of Rome and a warning to anyone who might consider challenging the Empire.   The experience of seeing a naked man beaten beyond recognition, writhing in agony, bleeding, weakly screaming, pleading for death to give relief this was an image everyone knew.  Like any great tragedy, art, film and imagination cannot adequately capture the moment.  It was a dark, ugly, terrifying reality.  What is more, the hopelessness of the spiritual reality is worse than the physical experience.  Every aspect of the physical darkness is darker and worse spiritually.  The hopelessness, sorrow, pain, fear, misery of this hard life is multiplied by a factor that cannot be named in a Godless eternity.

Pilate unknowing and metaphorically describes our hopelessness.  “What I have written I have written”.  He clearly did not mean to give us a spiritual lesson but it is there.  What we write with our lives is ours.  We write a history of sin and selfishness and evil and it is there forever.  We cannot erase it, we cannot bring light to the darkness of our soul.  We cannot bring life to death.  What we write with our lives is written. Until we return to the place of the skull.

There is One on Skull Hill who takes on Himself all our wrath and evil and wickedness.  What we have written we have written but He takes all that is written and takes it away.  In place of all our lives have written He gives a new life.  

“Lord, thank you for the cross. AMEN”

John Chapters 19-20

Side Bar

It is interesting that the resurrection of Jesus receives so little space in the Gospels, much less than the teachings, or miracles.  This is because the resurrection is assumed as a fact.  The Gospels do not try to prove the resurrection; they assume the resurrection.  They were not written as an apology (a defense of the faith) but as a narrative, simply telling the story.  However in a careful reading of the narrative we find an underlying apology of the resurrection.  

Consider what percentage of the Gospel is about the resurrection

Matthew   .0186%

Mark  .0132% - .0294%

Luke .046%

John .063

John 19:1-16

 John 19:1-16

Pilate did not hate the truth the way the Jewish leaders did, but neither was he fully committed to it.  Pilate wanted to find a middle way.  A way that would keep Jesus’ supporters from rioting and would keep the Jews from causing political trouble for him with Rome.  Pilate would have Jesus beaten, a good barracks room beating by angry frustrated soldiers, that would satisfy the Jews.  He would also find some sliver of a reason to release Jesus, and all that would take would be a simple word or request or promise from Jesus.  And after a Roman beating who would not ask for pity?  Pilate has Jesus beaten and in the mockery of the soldiers Jesus is given a crown of thorns and a purple robe.  When Jesus comes out before the crowd Pilate offers his enigmatic proclamation, “Behold the man”.  What did Pilate mean with this statement?  We can never read someone else’s mind and Pilate never tells us.  Perhaps Pilate was saying, “Look at this poor man” as a way of eliciting pity for Jesus and getting the Jews to drop their demand for His crucifixion based on pity.  Maybe he was saying, “This guy?” as a sort of “You are afraid of this pathetic guy?”  Maybe Pilate said it in an ironic, racist, and contemptuous way: “This man is barely a man after what we have done” in an attempt to appeal to their ethnic loyalty anticipating that they would call for the release of one of their own.   Maybe it is real respect on Pilate’s part, “That is a real man, with an unbroken spirit even after this beating”.  Whatever he meant, Pilate wanted to do the right thing, but he did not want to do it enough to risk an unpopular decision. 

“Ecce Homo” is an appeal to make the right thing popular so he would keep his conscience clear and maintain some sense of popularity.  But there is no middle ground, there is no third way.  To want to do right but to lack the conviction to follow through will have the same result as a willful desire to do evil! 

“Lord, grant me the courage to live holy no matter the cost. AMEN”

John 18:28-40

 John 18:28-40

Pilate has one overarching supreme objective.  This singular objective drives everything in his life.  If he can achieve this objective all will be well, if not nothing is going to work out.  Every decision and every choice that Pilate makes must be seen through the lens of this objective.  Once we see this we can understand why he seems to try to take both sides in regard to Jesus.  That one objective is to make the emperor happy by keeping the peace.  When it came to subjectgated lands all that Rome wanted was maximum revenue with minimum cost and rioting.  Rebellion and ruckus was expensive in both coin and man power.  No governor wanted that on his balance sheet.  

We see Pilate provide a cohort to arrest Jesus, but we also see him try to release Him.  We see Pilate assert that Jesus is the King of the Jews but also realize that He is no threat.  Pilate cynically asks “What is truth?” but also declares “I find no guilt in Him”.  Pilate wants to play both sides.  He wants to keep the Jewish establishment from causing trouble and keep Jesus’ followers from rioting and bringing an insurrection to the forefront.  Pilate wanted to secure the safe middle ground, to not be bothered by this pesky issue of Jesus.  

We can reject Jesus and bar Him from any contact or influence in our lives or we may humbly follow Him as our Lord.  Neutrality with Jesus is impossible.  Try as we might to establish a spiritual Switzerland and remain neutral, we can’t. The one thing Pilate most wanted, is one thing that is most impossible.  That is of course still the case.  

“Lord, help me daily to declare my loyalty to Jesus as my absolute Sovereign. AMEN”

John 18:13-27

 John 18:13-27

In verse 22 we see the first of the physical attacks on Jesus.  As with all of the physical abuse we can think, “If you only knew who you were abusing?”  Eternal God made flesh slapped by His creation.  Turning the other cheek was not a theoretical discussion, it was the principle which would lead from slapping to crucifixion to resurrection.  We are fools to think that non-violence will result in changing the heart and attitude of the attacker.  That is not the point of turning the other cheek.  The point of turning the other check is obedience; the results are not the objective.  From this point on the violence will only grow and Jesus will respond in obedience to the Father.

Obedience is obedience only if disobedience is a real possibility.  Jesus could have responded with the cosmic power that created the universe or an army of angels.  But obedience to the Father precluded those responses.  I don’t have that kind of power at my disposal as evidenced by the fact that the world has not been destroyed.    I don’t have an angelic army to command, I am not even a member of a gang.  But I do have the capacity to hate, to have an inner universe in which I am divine.  In this universe I can rally those people who adore me to join together in hating those who offend me.  Law, culture and relative strength limit our capacity for violence and revenge.  But nothing from the outside can restrain secret hates we harbor.

Turning the other check literally or metaphorically is no big deal if we have no other options.  What we see in Jesus throughout the passion is an outward sign of an inner love.  To restrain self from anger and bitterness because of love is what Jesus did and what we are called to as well.

“Lord, help me to love those who hate me, with the love Jesus has for those who hate Him. AMEN”

John 18:1 - 12

 John 18:1 - 12

We must never imagine for a second that Jesus was a victim of what happened that night. He was the master of all that transpired; do not feel sorry for Jesus.  Love and worship Him but do not think that he was the victim of all that transpired.

With a fear of rebellion Pilate releases a “cohort” to be put at the disposal of the arresting party. This represents 600 men. Not all would have been in the garden. At this point the garden would have been surrounded, checkpoints would have been along the roads and any crossroads secured. This Jesus of Nazareth wasn't going to disappear into the desert and raise an army.

With this massive contingent before and around Him Jesus demonstrates the real power of the situation. In response to asking whom they were looking for and they answered “Jesus”. Jesus tells them “I AM”. That is the personal name of God. At that moment the arresting party falls to the ground. This was not out of respect for the name of God. This was the might in the power of God's presence overwhelming men. It was a clear demonstration of who was in charge. Again Jesus asked who they wanted? Again they answered “Jesus”. No one in this party could claim that they were unaware of Jesus' Divinity; they had just experienced it. 

There is another point for us here.  Faced with such odds we have to respect the misguided courage of Peter, he had no chance of winning and he knew it, but perhaps we could buy time, cause a distraction and give Jesus a running start. But let’s not miss the point that it is as the arresting party is recovering themselves that Peter strikes, he hits them when they are all weak. Makes sense in terms of a fight. But like us Peter is using the Divine moment for his agenda. It is as if Peter is attempting to co-op the encounter with Christ to accomplish his plan for Jesus. Believe it or not that is not the last time that this happens. In fact we often see the work of God stolen by men to accomplish their own program. But like Peter and the arrest team we are without excuse; we have seen the resurrection,

“Lord never allow me to use Your Kingdom for my purpose.  AMEN”

John 17:20-26

 John 17:20-26

In this final section of Jesus's prayer we see His appeal for the unity of all believers through the whole church age. This prayer for unity has been the impetus of more than one movement. Nevertheless there are few that would say that unity among believers exists. We might even ask what are the implications of Jesus earnestly making a request of the Father and that this prayer was not fully answered. What do we see in Jesus's unanswered prayer? 

In fact there is not even an agreement about what this unity would mean or would look like. Would we say that this unity is a mystical unity that exists at a spiritual and supernatural level? That can't be all there is to it because the unity of which Jesus speaks is visible to the unbelieving world and causes them to come to faith. If we say that unity is a functional and ecclesiastical unity we miss the spiritual description of it being like the Son being in the Father and the Father in the Son. This unity, whatever it is, is at least as easy to understand as the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact the marvel of the church's unity is based on the Trinity.

One attempt at unity has been the statement, “In matters of Faith Unity and matters of opinion Liberty that in all things love”. This is pretty good as far as it goes in III John we see that if a person is a heretic we can't receive them, clearly there are limits to unity. But conversely we are not in agreement with what are matters of faith and what are matters of opinion. We have a remarkable ability to fight over almost anything. I once heard of a church split that occurred over whether the new roof on its building should be shingle or metal. Nothing tells the world, “We have nothing you want” like a church fight.

The issue of church unity is about 2,000 years old and has been studied, prayed over, and argued about by some very smart and godly people and we still don't have it figured out. But there is one starting point and one thing we can do and that is love. As Jesus concluded this prayer, “…that the love where with Thou dids’t love me may be in them and I in them.”

“Lord, if nothing else help me to love those who love you. AMEN”

John 17: 8 - 19

 John 17: 8 - 19 

What is the reality of the relationship of the disciple and the church in the world? What is the fundamental experience of the people of God while they live between their conversion and their personal Resurrection? The fundamental relationship between the world and the people of God is one of hostility. The world hates the Christian and the church. For its part the church is not in the world to coddle and soothe but to challenge the world to continue the message and the work of Christ.

Jesus does not call us out of the world to a safe Christian Cloister. Rather He sends us into the world, into the midst of struggle and hostility and opposition but under the Father's protection by His word. We err equally when we, as disciples, believe we ought to sequester ourselves in the safe confines of Christian Community, seen especially in the church. When we believe that we can reform the world with our optimistic view of a better world now.  If we imagine that we can affirm and endorse the world’s values, morals and ethics as they are. There is equal folly in each.

If the foundational problem in the world is that it is in rebellion towards God we will not be able to see resolution until the rebels surrender. That surrender will not occur by our escapism, surface superficial reforms, or agreement with the world’s terms of surrender. The rebel may never repent but he can be told he needs to. That telling is as apt to produce hostility, as it is repentance, maybe more. In either case we are under Divine protection. That protection is the source of our joy in the midst of the suffering.

“Lord, grant me courage under Your protection in this hostile world.  AMEN”

John 17:1 - 8

 John 17:1 - 8 

The Son is glorified by the Father for what He will do and what He has done. In verses 1-2 we see that Jesus asked His Father to glorify Him because of the future action of giving eternal life to men. The work of Salvation on the cross is only hours away but it will rescue men for eternity. In versus 4-5 Jesus asked that the Father glorify Him for what He has already been accomplished. Jesus accomplished the work that the Father had given Him: the Incarnation, life, ministry, teaching, miracles and sinlessness of the Son were completed. Between these two statements of glorification is the description of eternal life to know the one true God and Jesus Christ sent From Heaven.

Declaring of the glory of God is never more complete and full than it is when men accept the gift of eternal life and become disciples or followers of Christ. The great sermons and lessons, the music and songs, the interjections and expressions of praise all have their place. But they remain sign posts pointing to, they are explanations and descriptions of the person and work of Jesus who came to save the lost. The marvel and tension of perfect forgiveness and perfect justice are worked out on the cross. How can a perfectly holy God at the same time fully punish the most grotesque sin and forgive the perpetrator? By the Incarnation, perfect life, and sacrificial death of God the son. The greatest composer, singer, speaker, writer, or musician glorifies God less fully than the one who says “In the Cross of Christ is God's plan of eternal life. Come follow Christ!"

“Lord, grant that I will follow faithfully and simply. AMEN”

John 16:25-33

 John 16:25-33

Jesus’ teaching on Earth comes to an end. The next chapter is Jesus's Priestly prayer, then it's to the Garden, the trials, and the cross. In this passage Jesus gets to the core of our struggle in faith. "...for the Father Himself loves you..."   There is more difficulty with these words than we care to admit, imagine, or accept.   The love of God towards us is the fundamental point of our faith.  “For God so loved the world...” But there is a change in this passage. In John 3:16 Jesus used the word Agape for love. Agape is the self-sacrificing love for the well being of the other. God loves the pedophile, and the pimp, God loves the lust-filled adulteress, and the drug lord He loves the liar and a thief. He loves them so much that He gives His Son as a sacrifice for them and for us. But the word love here is different. The word here is Philia.  It is the word for the love of a friend. Being a friend of God is different from being the object of His salvation sacrificial love.

God wants to be with us, He likes us, our company and doing stuff with us, we are delightful to Him. This frankly is hard for us to wrap our minds around. We have no trouble seeing God as the holy judge who punishes sin. We have very little trouble seeing God as one who saves us by the cross motivated by Agape.   But God as a friend who wants to be rolling through life with us that's harder for us to comprehend. Especially when we struggle with hardships, frustrations, failures, and questions, and we wonder why God doesn't come riding in on a charger and save the day. Perhaps that is the wrong image, the wrong way for us to think about God.

Like all analogies this one will break down if pressed too hard. But hear me out. There is a redneck saying that goes, “A good friend will come and bail you out of jail in the middle of the night.  A great friend will be sitting beside you saying, ‘Man wasn't that great’”. We tend to think of God as a friend who will come and post the bail and sign us out of jail. But He wants to be the one who is in jail with us. Now only a fool would propose that we should engage in riotous behavior that lands us in jail. But the best times of life are the times of high-risk shared with friends. Close companionship plus difficulty or suffering equals a bond closer than all others. I have read numerous accounts of men who have fought wars together.  They report a bond that is closer than the bond of family.  Sports teams that survive the trials that are the hardest have friendships that last the longest.

Perhaps the struggle with being a friend of God is because we play it too safe. We risk too little so that we will never struggle. Maybe what we need is not more cushions on our pews, or better climate control in our sanctuary, or nicer music in our ears.  Maybe what we need is more blood on our knuckles, sweat in our armpits and more adrenaline in our blood.  In our grasping for security at home, at church, and in life we have removed the very thing that will help us understand God as a friend.  Jesus concluded his teaching on Earth by saying, “In this world you will have tribulation but take courage I have overcome the world.”  We work really hard at trying to avoid tribulation.  So our friendship with God is bland and insipid.  Maybe we should engage those Kingdom things where we may get bloodied but we will walk away saying, “Man was that great or what?”

“Lord, grant me a great heart to risk great things with You. AMEN”

John 16:12 - 24

 John 16:12 - 24 

Everyone who has unanswered prayers looks at verse 24 with a questioning or a dubious eye. We read, “Ask and you will receive”, and we wonder why we don't get the answers to our prayers. The marriage doesn't recover, the child is never conceived, the cancer wins, we never get that date we asked for or the pony we wanted when we were six years old. My friend Rob died.  I never knew one person who was such a combination of Christian Grace and love and warmth. From when he told me he had pancreatic cancer till he died was about one year, a painful year of chemo and decline. In those last 365 days of my praying for Rob, me and perhaps 1,000 other people, he was not healed at all. Some of those people praying were holy saints that had dramatic prayers answered with startling frequency. By the way I, for one, don't want to hear “he got his healing in heaven”. That is not what we asked for. Our prayer was that stage 4 pancreatic cancer would go away and Rob, with a healthy cancer-free body, would live out many years of helping us know Jesus better and love Him more. 

Jesus tells the disciples that before the cross there were things they could not understand. After the Spirit comes He would guide them. This is not a promise of new revelation, rather the Spirit would guide them in application of what Jesus had revealed. At this time the disciples were still thinking of the Kingdom as a political-military  Earthly affair. Even after the resurrection they were looking for an Earthly Kingdom. It is only after Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit that they begin to understand that the kingdom of Christ is something entirely different. And this, by the way, was only one of their confusions. The Holy Spirit comes to our lives to give us the application of truth that leads us to holiness and righteous living. 

The Holiness of the disciple is superior to that of the self-righteousness person because the Spirit guides it. On the outside they may look very much the same. The self-righteous person may tithe and be so conscientious about it that to the point that they count their seeds. The Spirit guided disciple may be equally conscientious but it is supremely different because of the motivation, the Holy Spirit guides them. The disciple will never live immorally and claim that God's will.  His behavior is righteous and seen but he is empowered by the Spirit, which is unseen. Which brings us back to Jesus's promise of answered prayer. When we want to know what is righteous, what is Holy, what is the right thing to do; Jesus guides us by the Spirit. That does not violate our free will, because we want to be righteous.  It may be that we may not want to know God’s will or obey Him. But when we seek righteousness Jesus always answers and gives us what we asked. This passage is more about getting what we want when what we want is righteous living. It isn’t about getting the things or earthy pleasure or selfish ambition.

So my friend died in spite of all the prayers of a lot of godly people.  Perhaps we didn’t get what we wanted because it wasn’t what God wanted.

“Lord, help me want what You want more than anything else.  AMEN”

John 16:1-11

 John 16:1-11

How often do we develop a fantasy of Messianic bliss? How often do we portray discipleship in terms of “Happy ever after”?  With a misunderstanding and misapplication of ‘abundant life’ we set up those we teach and ourselves for disappointment.  Jesus tells His disciples that as a result of their loyalty to Him they will suffer dramatically.  He tells them not so they can avoid suffering but so that they will not be tripped up by it.  

I fear that “positive mental attitude”, ‘possibility thinking’, ‘prosperity gospel’ and such has infected Christianity to the point we are unaware, unwilling or afraid to address the high cost of being a disciple.  In the absence of presenting the cost of discipleship we set people up for a stumble.  Either when confronted by the cost of following they decided to walk away from Christ, or they modify orthodox Christianity into something less painful and decidedly more heretical.  

The costly discipleship, marked by suffering as it is, has the advantage of the Holy Spirit coming as our helper.  The Holy Spirit comes and He convicts the world.  To help understand this we can use the phrase “expose the world”.  He exposes that THE sin is unbelief in Jesus as God’s Son and Christ.  All the sins (works of darkness or acts of evil) are merely a product of or expression of the rejection of God’s Son.  He exposes the world’s standing in ‘righteousness’ or Divine justice because Jesus is shown by the Spirit to stand in God’s presence where Holy judgment and justice find their origin.  The Holy Spirit exposes the world’s failure in its commitment to the dark lord of this age, because the resurrection proves that Satan is defeated.  

The message that makes the disciple so much a subject of persecution is a message confirmed by the Holy Spirit, a message of Faith in Jesus as God’s Son.  It is the message that Satan and his system is void.  The source of our hardship works out to actually be our advantage. 

“Lord, help me to see hardship from an eternal perspective, the sign of victory it is.  AMEN”

John 15:18-27

 John 15:18-27

At the end of World War II the US began an economic boom unparalleled in history.  The incredible production effort of war became an engine for peacetime prosperity.  The middle class grew dramatically and enjoyed wealth that a generation before was reserved only for the rich.  The contrast of wealth from the second half of the 20th century to the second half of the 19th century is astonishing.    This gave rise to one of the core values of our culture: Personal peace and affluence.  Without ever being written into law this value permeates and colors every aspect of our lives.  Like the air we breathe we don’t think of it unless something threatens it.  Both conscientiously and subconsciously we shape our lives around the ideals that protect our undisturbed life and our stuff.  

The call of Jesus into our lives comes and bursts this cozy cocoon like I pin bursting a balloon.   Jesus is emphatic that the hate of the world for the disciples is to be expected. If the core reality of the kingdom of God is love the core reality of the world is hate. The world's hate is directed at anything that challenges its autonomy. The word of Christ is in direct conflict with the world. The world says, “Have a good time and have a strong self-esteem”. The Lord says, “Weep and mourn because your righteousness is like filthy rags”. The world says, “Accumulate all you can”. The Lord says: “How miserable you rich are”. The world says, “Pursue your greatest goal”. The Lord says, “Unless you repent you will be destroyed”. The world says “We are the apex of evolution and the masters of our own fate”. The Lord says, “You are only dust”. 

When the message of the Lord comes through His disciples to the world the world responds by hate. Persecution is the norm for the disciple. The absence of persecution may be attributed to the culture being thoroughly reshaped by the gospel message. Or it may reflect that the disciple has, in order to protect their own personal peace and affluence, toned down or adjusted their message. 

As disciples, we are not called to go looking for persecution. Rather we will find it coming to us when we offer the message of repentance and the world is offended. May it never be that our own personal peace and affluence perverts us and the fear of losing it causes us to soften or silence our message.

“Lord, grant me courage to be faithful in the face of a world of hate.  AMEN”

John 15:9-17

 John 15:9-17

This passage provides for us a sort of manifesto for life in the community of disciples, the church.  What we see in this passage is the foundation for life together as followers of Christ, both locally and globally.  Three themes are developed for our life together: love, holiness, and joy. First is love. With the same intensity that the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the disciples. This love is agape and it is the all pervasive modus operandi of the Father for the Son and the Son for us. It is far from sentimental and it is deeper than merely an emotional response. It is all-pervasive so that all that comes to us from God is motivated by love. Even the painful moments, which turn us toward God, have behind them the origin of love. God's love is not the only operative force in the universe but even the power of evil is restrained by God's love.

Living in that love draws out of us a motivation to obey. The life of Holiness is more than keeping a set of rules.  It is, in fact, living out of the love of Christ for, in, and through us. Indeed this love is behavioral. No one murders his brother out of love.  But it is more than rule keeping. It is living as a love or thank offering each day. Holiness, this obedience, is proactively loving God and man.

When we are basking, abiding in and living in this love which expresses itself in obedience the result is the joy of Christ is in us and that joy becomes full.  Love and obedience is how we have joy.   Joy is not dependent on our circumstances. Joy is possible even in our suffering and in being hated by the world.   The joy acts as a catalyst to more full awareness of and expression of love and holiness.

As love, holiness and joy grow our relationship with God matures. It moves from one level to another and we become friends of God.  And then we grow more and and we become  even better friends of God.

“Lord, shape me so that I live a life of love, holiness, and joy. AMEN”

John 15:1-8

 John 15:1-8

This passage is often cited as a promise that we can get whatever we want by prayer.  In reality it is a warning about our condemnation and judgment.  Verse 7 sounds like a blank check of answered prayer.  All that is required is that we abide (love) in Jesus and have faith to name and claim ‘whatever you wish’.  But the context is much more serious than our wishes. 

Jesus says that the purpose of our living is to bear fruit.  This is made possible by our connection to Him.  When we are connected and bearing fruit what ever facilitates our bearing fruit will be done when we ask.  What Jesus promises is that we will at our request be given any and everything we need and want to bear fruit.

This brings the question: what does it mean to bear fruit?  Some say it is moral character development that we see described in the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.  Others think this is a reference to the evangelistic effort of the disciples.  Such a distinction is a false dichotomy.  Character reform that is not active in evangelistic efforts is sterile.  Like a castrated horse or a steer it may grow large individually but will never grow a herd.  Evangelistic efforts without character change will result in corrupt deformed disciple and will ultimately leave the local body in ruins.

The solution is the removal of such limited thinking.  In the same way we cannot fathom a disciple whose life is marked by habitual sin and flagrant corruption, we should find the disciple who is not carrying out the great commission equally incomprehensible.  But the holy living disciple engaged in bearing witness to Christ will manifest both.  

“Lord, give me the opportunities and resources to both make disciples and live a holy life. AMEN”