“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” John 14:9 (NIV)
This One who claimed to be God will come alongside you and give you help beyond anything you can imagine.
I recall the incident as though it was yesterday. I was attending a Communion Service in a local church. The way things went in this particular meeting was that any person was free to get up and read a Scripture, comment on it, ask for a certain hymn to be sung, or pray out loud. I was familiar with the congregation and thus knew most people who regularly attended the services there. At one point this particular Sunday a fine looking, immaculately dressed young man stood up and read some words of Jesus from one of the Gospels. Then he announced that he was Jesus, the One who had said those words so long ago!
Talk about hearing a pin drop. The silence was deafening. The young man sat down right after telling us he was Jesus. You can imagine that no one present believed he was Jesus. I am confident that all of us thought him to be deluded. After a silence of just a moment which seemed an eternity he rose and went out. A couple of men followed him to try and help him find the needed medical attention. We later learned he was a regular patient at the psychiatric unit of the local hospital.
Never before or after have I been brought so close to someone who thought themselves God. But, you see, the statement of Jesus in John 14:9 is a claim exactly like that of the young man I heard so many years ago. What would you think of a person who said to you, “Look at me and see God the Father.”? Of course you would view them as I viewed that sad young man that Sunday morning. But Jesus said many such things about being God when He walked this earth. The main response was to say He blasphemed which, according to Jewish law, was correct unless He really was God when He said it.
Continue reading 'Believing is seeing'»
“Stop letting your hearts trouble you” John 14:1
Jesus first washed the disciples’ feet. Many think the disciples were too proud to be humble enough to wash each other’s feet.
The context of our verse today is perplexing. You see, in John 13, the things that are detailed as happening just before Jesus said to the disciples to cut out their worrying shows that it was Jesus who got them all upset in the first place. Why did He upset them only to tell them to calm down? What did He do or say to disturb them so much? Is He still troubling His people today?
Well, in John 13, the chapter that describes the night in which Jesus was betrayed, the first thing that happened to create confusion and distress for the disciples was the incident of washing their feet. In the ancient near east there were a number of things a host would do in bringing a guest into their home.
There was some blessing in greeting the guest such as “Peace be on you”. Then they kissed the cheeks of the person rather than shaking hands as we do in western society. Next the host saw to the washing of the visitor’s feet. Following this the person’s head was anointed with oil. A drink of water was then given last. So getting a guest into the home to be seated took some time!
Jesus first washed the disciples’ feet. Although the text does not explicitly say that the disciples had not performed this courtesy when they arrived for the meal, many think they were too proud to be humble enough to wash each other’s feet. We do know before the feet washing the disciples had argued about which of them was greater Luke 22:24. Jesus may have done the feet washing to shame them after their heated debate. So having the Master wash their feet was very troubling.
Continue reading 'Cut it out!'»
“Jesus gave him no answer” Luke 23:9 (NIV)
Hence when Jesus appeared before Herod He was being judged by a vile and morally corrupt person who refused to turn from his sin and seek the Lord.
The one to whom Jesus would not speak was a fascinating character indeed. I am polite in using the word “fascinating” of this man. His name was Herod Antipas and he was a son of Herod the Great. He had inherited his father’s passion for building and founded the city of Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee. He was an able man, likely the most capable of Herod the Greats sons.
Our first introduction to him is in Mark 6:14-28. Here we read of him putting John the Baptist into prison and executing him at the request of his step-daughter. Our other sight of Antipas in the Gospels is in the passage where Jesus refuses to speak to him. It was during the Roman trial of Jesus that Pilate presents Jesus to Herod for disposition. During His public ministry Jesus once referred to Herod as “that fox” Luke 13:32
Prior to examining this scene of Jesus’ silence, a little background on Herod will shed light on our passage. Herod seemed to everyone a happily married man until one time when he went to visit his half-brother Herod Philip in Rome. While there he and Philip’s wife got entangled and decided they could not live without one another. For Herodias’s part she was fed up with the boring life of a matron in safe, secure Rome.
Continue reading 'When Jesus stops talking'»
“I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33 (NIV)
One of the words that is used in the Bible several hundred times is the word covenant. This is a word that everyone who has been married or owned a house will understand. It conveys the idea of an agreement between two parties. When you marry someone the two of you agree to certain things you will do for the other person. Also you will be guaranteed certain things in return. Usually the terms include fidelity to the other person and to a life long commitment to the vows. Each side to the covenant promise to do certain things and in return are guaranteed specific things by the other party.
Those people who have believed on the Lord Jesus have a covenant with God. However the situation is very different in that covenant. It is not the kind of covenant where two parties sit down at the bargaining table and hammer out a mutually satisfying agreement. The covenant Christians have with God is an agreement that is totally one-sided. That is – God promises to give His people blessings for a price. Jesus is the One who agrees to pay the price or the terms of the covenant.
Continue reading 'The ultimate security of God’s people'»
“You, oh Lord light my lamp.” Psalm 18:28
In Jesus’ time candles were only beginning to be used by the Chinese and a few other nations. In Palestine in Jesus’ time a lamp was a shallow bowl with a pinched lip to hold the wick. Jews did not like darkness and even cursed people by saying something like, “May your lamp go out in darkness.” When a person was born blind or became blind in life Jews immediately thought the person or his parents were under the judgment of God for some grave sin.
The poorest homes in Jesus’ time considered the luxury of oil to burn in the lamp through the night to be a necessity. It was a sign of the most severe poverty to be without oil to light the night.
Even in our own day when people speak of a movie being dark they mean that the story line is evil or sinister somehow. When we think of dark gothic things like makeup, clothing or poetry, the idea conveyed is of blood, dying, sorrow, pain etc. So darkness is historically associated with evil and the unhappy life.
Continue reading 'The Light of the world'»
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