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Jewels from John: Part 2

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

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I am continuing the series ‘Jewels from John’ where I reflect on passages from the Gospel of John.

John 4:50 ‘The man took Jesus at his word and departed’. NIV

A government official in Capernaum had a son who was so sick that he was near death. He heard that Jesus was in Cana and set out to ask the Master to accompany him back to his home to heal his son. He begged Jesus to help him, but instead of agreeing to go to the boy, Jesus said “Go back home. Your son will live!” This was remarkable, but even more remarkable is that the man didn’t argue, plead, or burst into tears. He believed what the Lord said, turned around and walked the 40 kilometres back home.

There is no indication in the Gospel narrative that the man had ever met Jesus before or even witnessed him healing people. He must have heard about the Lord’s miraculous power because he left his son on the edge of death to find the one he believed could help him. He must have already consulted doctors but they had failed to heal the boy. So, in desperation, he set off to pursue his last hope. He had probably heard how Jesus healed with a touch or even words of command, but he could not have been aware that Jesus was able to heal long-distance.

It would have been a long walk home and we know from the biblical account that Jesus instructed him to go home at noon (The seventh hour). The next day when he was almost there, a servant met him on the road with the joyful news that the boy had been healed at exactly the time when Jesus spoke. Imagine the joy that father experienced!

What engages my mind and heart when I read this story is what it means to take Jesus at his word. Well, firstly, we need to ‘hear’ instructions from the Master. Some teach that we should simply claim the biblical account for ourselves. Then, they say, we need to act as though we have received the healing. However, this is just magical thinking and does not involve us ‘hearing’ anything from Jesus. True, we do need to exercise faith if we are to receive anything from God. What is the use of asking if we do not believe he will respond positively?

But here is the thing; to act, we need first to believe, and to believe, we need to hear directly from the Lord.

This involves reading the accounts and injunctions in scripture that bear on our problem and then praying, sometimes repeatedly, until we strongly sense that the Holy Spirit has spoken to us. ‘Spoken’ is another word, like ‘hear’, that we need to understand more from our hearts than our heads. To me, it means becoming conscious that God has placed into my spirit an assurance that I can ‘go’ and expect that he has undertaken for me. At this point, I step out on the road of faith and do what he has said I should.

John 5:23 “He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him”. NIV

Many Christians focus their theology and spiritual life almost exclusively on The Father. They relegate the Lord Jesus to a lesser place of honour as just the one the Father sent to die for our sins. I am not sure that too many have evaluated this impact on their theology. For instance, what does it imply regarding the Father and Son’s roles in humankind’s creation and redemption? What does it imply about the character of the Father who observes Jesus’ suffering, persecution, and horrific death from the safety of Heaven? We pray to the Father, but seldom to Jesus and often get irritated when some preachers and teachers make the second personage of the Godhead the centre of attention. I doubt if any thought is given to this. After all, we all live as Christians under the intricate theology of the Trinity even if we don’t know what divine tri-unity means.

But hang on a second! Jesus said that if we do not honour him, we do not honour the Father. He said that he and the Father are one. He also said that if we have seen him then we have seen the Father. Furthermore, Jesus declared that he is the only way to the Father.

Being Jesus-centred, or Christocentric as I call it, is not a quaint spin on Trinitarian thought or Christian tradition. It is the key to unlocking an understanding of the Trinity and the very bedrock of authentic Christian tradition. Please do not misunderstand; I am not proposing we relegate the Father to an inferior position or role. On the contrary, I hold that to honour the Father we must honour the Son. The Father is worthy of our adoration, but we cannot give him full honour without centring on Jesus!

And I mustn’t start in on giving proper attention to the person and role of the Holy Spirit, because that is the subject of other reflections.

John 5:39-40 “ You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” NIV

I know many people who revere the bible and spend a good part of their time studying it. The scriptures demand our respect because they are divinely inspired, trustworthy, and indeed the written Word of God. However, they are not the source of truth or life. Instead, they point to and help us perceive and embrace the true source, Jesus. I realise that the convention is to spell the word bible with a capital ‘B’, but I don’t. I thought long, hard, and prayerfully before breaking a time-honoured convention. By presenting the word without a capital I am making an important point.

The bible is a collection of sixty-six different literary works not one seamless pronouncement from on high. The bible has to be read in its many parts to understand its purposes, and these are: To reveal the nature and character of God; to reveal the nature and character of sinful human beings; to trace the unfolding record of how God has dealt with the problem of sin and the way of redemption; and to inform us on how and how not to live. However, its most important purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ and help us to know him. John put it this way near the end of his Gospel; “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.

We don’t worship the bible as though it were a little paper god carried into the sanctuary of our lives on a velvet cushion. We study it to find, understand, and promote the Word of Life who is the one who declared himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life.

All of this is worth deep reflection, but it leads on to an even deeper issue. In the second century a group of ‘Christians’ emerged who taught that knowledge was the secret to eternal life. Theologians refer to them as ‘gnostics’. The problem is that this thinking is still an issue in the church of our day. The problem isn’t with the Christian Scientists and the various esoteric groups around but with the millions of church-goers all around us who seem to have an unstated belief that bible study and theological study are a means of salvation. Knowers of the Word are more highly valued than doers of the Word, and the ‘Word’ is consistently regarded as the bible and not the Lord of the bible, Jesus. Enough of these gnostically inclined folk and whole churches and even denominations become dead monuments to intellectual pride instead of living temples in which God dwells by his Spirit.

It is worth thinking about, long and hard. One way looks like life but leads to death and the other looks narrow-focused but it leads to life.

**John 6:28-29 “They asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.“** NIV

This may look like a repeat of the previous reflection, but it isn’t. Here I want to share some thoughts on the relationship between good, and even godly, works and belief in Jesus for life and eternity.

Most biblically literate people do not confuse works with saving faith. They understand that James’ letter does not promote good works as a substitute for faith in Jesus. On the contrary, James positions works as evidence of faith. The question is, “Do the good works we do provide others with obvious evidence of our relationship with Jesus and their need to enjoy a similar relationship?” Put in typical Christianese, “Are our good deeds a sufficient witness?”

To the Jews of Jesus’ day, their religious works were proof of their faith. Moreover, they were the basis of their faith. If they did right then they were in right standing with God, and if they didn’t, then they were no better than the heathen around them. It must have been shocking for them to hear Jesus’ answer to their question. Paraphrased, they were saying, “So Lord, what are the rules and regulations of scripture that we need to perform to please God?” His answer was, “Just one thing; believe in me!” What the triune God wants from us, is that we believe in Jesus, follow his teaching and example, and rely on him for life and eternity.

Now I am sure we all understand this. Why is it then that I hear people saying or implying that they don’t have to verbalise their belief in Jesus because their ‘actions speak louder than words’? This makes no sense to me. We show kindness to a stranger and they are supposed to know that we are not just nice people, but actually witnesses to Jesus’ life within us? How does this help them to know the truth and find him who is the truth? This may be a little harsh, but in cases like this, do our good works point to Jesus or to ourselves? Obviously, if we can do good, fail to do so, and then attempt to ‘witness’ to them we are declaring ourselves to be hypocrites and our witness false. However, consider the logical chain that Paul sets out in Romans 10:13-15 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Surely this logical Progression must equally apply to our good works and words of witness?

The next set of reflections will be from John chapters 6,7,8 and 9. Between now and then, why don’t you collect your own little bag of Jewels from John? You will be blessed.

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Perspective

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

In these times of national crisis, we need a Jesus perspective, a glimpse of the big picture and a shift in focus.

From a cripple to a powerful preacher

When Joni Erickson Tada was just 17 years old she dived into shallow water and broke her neck. Although she was a quadriplegic from then on, she became one of the most well-known and effective Christian motivational speakers in the world.

These of some of the more memorable things she said:

“Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves”.

“True wisdom is found in trusting God where you can’t figure things out”.

“Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life”.

The last quote is particularly pertinent to this article. Perspective is the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance, and we certainly need this in the days in which we live. These are times when we can’t figure things out and so need to trust God for what we cannot understand.

Vital texts rather than tired cliches

I am not going to suggest that you see the glass as half full instead of half empty, or that you learn to make lemonade from lemons. Cliches like this are not particularly helpful when you are facing life’s challenges, are they? Rather, I would like to take you to two passages of scripture that give us wonderful perspective.

Elisha’s servants change in perspective

The first passage is 2 Kings 6:15-17, which tells the story of Arams at war with Israel. Elisha the prophet was Israel’s secret weapon and each time the king of Aram sent out his army Elisha told his king exactly where the enemy soldiers would be. Eventually, the king of Aram found out what was happening and immediately sent a battalion to capture Elisha. One morning the prophet’s servant awoke, went outside, and to his horror saw that their village was surrounded. Verses 15-17: ‘”Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha’.

The servant saw the enemy cavalry and was afraid, but Elisha saw things from a different perspective, “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “ those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed that God would give his servant the same perspective and God opened the man’s eyes and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire.

The two realities

Two realities are presented here; a real hostile enemy and real spiritual beings of greater power and number. The servant got perspective when he moved his attention and focus from the physical to the spiritual; from the army of Aram to the army of Heaven; from the threat to God’s provision.

So, with this glimpse of perspective shining in our eyes let’s move to the New Testament account of two disciples traveling the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday.

The unrecognised fellow traveler

Jesus died at 3 pm on Passover Friday and only 40 hours later two unknown disciples left Jerusalem to return home to Emmaus, a 2-hour journey by foot. The scriptural account does not say that these two were returning home, but they likely were. They must have been afraid, disappointed, confused, sad, and angry. Their Messiah had died, their leaders were in hiding behind locked doors (level 5 Lockdown), and the dream was over. I can imagine them saying, “Let’s leave Jerusalem and go home before we too get arrested!”. Luke 24:13-32 tells the story.

As they walked they commiserated with each other. Jesus joined them, probably just after they left Jerusalem, but they were so busy ‘looking down’ that they didn’t recognise him. Jesus asked why they were so downcast and one of them replied: “Are you the only one living in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there in these days?” Now consider for a moment just how outrageous this question was. They proceeded to tell Jesus what had happened to him! Forgive me, but this sounds a lot like how we sometimes pray; we tell Jesus all about our difficult circumstances as if he doesn’t already know and hasn’t experienced far worse.

The greatest bible study ever

Jesus’ response is recorded in verses 25-27: ‘”How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’.

Jesus gives them perspective by showing them the big picture presented in the scriptures. But the greatest moment of revelation for them came when they sat down to eat supper together. As Jesus broke the bread they must have seen his nail-pierced wrists and realised just who their companion was. The one who had given them biblical perspective was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

As a result of this encounter with a greater reality, these two men got up and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles what had happened and to be part of what God was doing there. They were filled with enthusiasm and passion and keen to once again be with God’s people. And how blessed they must have felt because God was about to birth the church in the greatest Holy Spirit revival ever!

Perspective on the road we walk

In our strange and distressing times, we too need to see the big picture, the Jesus-perspective. We need to realise that something bigger is happening of which we can be part. Perhaps God is sounding out the last great warning that he will give to rebellious humanity; a trumpet blast of “Repent and turn to me!”

Perhaps millions will heed his call and turn back to God and we will see and be part of the greatest revival seen on this planet since the day of Pentecost!

We also need to grasp the fact that the spiritual world in which we live is just as real as the physical world on which we usually focus.

We need to realise that in this alternate reality the forces of God are greater than the forces of destruction confronting us in the material realm.

Do you recall what Jesus said to Peter regarding this when the Apostle cut off the High Priests servant’s ear in Gethsemane? He said,

“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels (70,000)?”

Finally, the greatest shift in perspective we need at this time, is that the one who could command 70,000 angels in a moment is the same one who walks with us on our Emmaus road through this strange world. His name is Jesus and he has told us that “In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!”

“Yes Joni Erickson Tada, perspective is everything… if it is a Jesus-perspective”.

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TruthTalks: A Psalm Today

Leave a Comment / Admin Posts, Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog, Podcast, TruthTalks / Christopher Peppler

Top Image If you are struggling to stay upbeat in the strange landscape that is the World and COVID-19, and if you even sometimes feel a little hopeless, then do yourself and favor and listen to this TruthTalks episode. It gives us not only hope but also direction on how to keep your spirits up.

How are YOU dealing with it?

How do you think God wants us to deal with it?

The original post is HERE, otherwise, take a listen to Dr Christopher Peppler talking on this subject by clicking on the play button below.

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TruthTalks Sermon: Jesus in the Perfect Storm

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog, Podcast, Sermons / Christopher Peppler

Top Image The Covid-19 virus has now hit South Africa, as it has so many other parts of the world. Instead of panicking, we should look to the Lord Jesus both as our example and object of faith.

I was so pleased to have been able to preach the first sermon from our church’s online platform designed especially for the period of national lock-down. The text is Mark 4:35-41 and the title says it all.

You can listen to the sermon by clicking on the “play” button below and if you want to share it with your friends and family then please do so by simply clicking on one or more of the social media icons at the foot of this post.

If you prefer watching me preaching this message (although I don’t know why anyone would want to ) then just click HERE. You can also read the article I wrote as a transcription of the sermon by clicking HERE.

May God be with us all and keep us safe and spiritually vigorous during these very challenging times.

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Jesus in the Perfect Storm

3 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

A perfect storm occurs when a warm wind collides with a cold wind over a warm and wet area. The result is often a very intense and destructive storm.

Here in South Africa, we seem to be experiencing our own ‘perfect storm’. For some time now our nation has been ‘warm and wet’ with corruption, crime, recession, and the like. Then came the warm wind of even more electricity load shedding than last year, followed closely by the cold wind of Covid-19. The results of the ensuing storm are stock exchange and rand collapse, rapidly deepening economic crisis… and panic! Like three apocalyptic horse-men with the 4^th grim reaper not far behind!

So, in this brief article, I want to take the account of Jesus in the storm as a model of how we should behave in these crazy times.

The Mark 4:35-4 Account of Jesus in the Storm

“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” NIV

The storm that Jesus’ disciples found themselves in was furious with waves crashing over their boat and threatening to swamp them. Luke 8 records that ‘they were in great danger’. Very much like a localised micro version of the storm that currently besets us and the whole world.

It Happens Suddenly

One of the details I want to highlight is given in the Matthew 8 account, which records that it all happened suddenly. Here in South Africa, we could track the Covid-19 events unfolding first in China and then in Italy and other countries. We got some idea of the health risks, but we had very little grasp on just how suddenly it would arrive, how quickly it would spread, and how devastating it would be to the economy. It happened suddenly.

I will pick up on other necessary responses in a moment, but here I want to touch on a less obvious response required from us – the need to be adaptable. Now, Covid-19 is physically hardest on the over 70’s age group and it is this same demographic that has the most trouble learning to adapt. Adaptability is the capacity to rapidly change our attitudes, actions, and lifestyles to meet the challenges of new situations. So, 70 years older or not, we all need to acquire this ability, and for this to happen we need to be humble and obediently dependant on the Holy Spirit.

We Are Not Alone

A second point that I want to draw from the account of Jesus in the storm is the fact that the disciples were not alone. They had each other in the boat and they were accompanied by other boats. In South Africa, we are fortunate to be able to draw on the collective knowledge and experience of the best minds in the entire world. Not only are they in similar boats to us, but they have been longer in the storm. We are not the only ones dealing with a financial collapse, health risks, and social isolation. And in addition to this, we as Christians are together in the boats of our local churches and the same Jesus who accompanied the first disciples is the one who said, “Surely. I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.”

What Do We Expect Jesus To Do?

Those first followers seemed not to grasp this reality because they were terrified and cried out, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Of course, Jesus cared for them just as He cares for us. However, a more valid question occurs to me: ‘what did they expect him to do? And by extension, what do we expect him to do in our storm?

Well, it’s clear from their reaction after Jesus supernaturally calmed the storm with a word that they hadn’t expected him to do that. Perhaps they expected him to help them bail, trim the sails, toss out anchors and so on – “wake up rabbi, all hands on deck or we all perish!”

Practical As Well as Faith-Filled

Note, by the way, that although Jesus rebuked the storm and their lack of faith, he did not rebuke their efforts to save the situation. I realise that I am ‘reading a little between the lines’ here, but it is a reasonable deduction. Some of the disciples were seasoned fishermen and would hardly be having a prayer meeting in the boat during a terrible storm.

We, like them, need to be practical as well as ‘spiritual’ in times like this. This is consistent with what Peter later wrote in 1 Peter 4:7 and 5:8: ‘The end of all things is near. You must be self-controlled and alert, to be able to pray… Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant, and cautious at all times.

So, my take away here is that we too need to be wise and responsible, thoughtful and purposeful. Not in place of being faith-filled, but in addition to it – Faith and responsible action working together. Here is what Martin Luther wrote to his fellow pastors when the Bubonic Plague struck Wittenburg in 1527:

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us… then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If my neighbour needs me however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely.”

Fear is an Enemy

Unfortunately, our response to a crisis is often either presumptuous ‘faith’ or debilitating fear. Some shout at the devil and bind storm-demons, while other cower and have panic attacks – “Master, master, we’re going to drown!” Now fear triggers a fight or flight reaction that can save our lives if we are being mugged, but in a prolonged crisis, it clouds our judgement, precipitates rash actions, and is the enemy of faith. And if you don’t think that otherwise reasonable people can respond to fear like that then consider:

Those who buy-up everything in the supermarkets including all the toilet rolls
And those who sell their equities at 30% down from last year’s values and thus ensure that they actualise their losses.
What about those who run off at the mouth with every imaginable conspiracy theory and disastrous scenario, effectively spreading their fear to others.
Not to mention the young and middle-aged who swamp the doctors and clinics with demands for testing and treatment when they know they only have about a 1 in 100 chance of getting really sick and thus putting the people who need to be tested at risk.

What did Jesus say to his disciples concerning this? “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

What is Faith?

Once again a question suggests itself to me: ‘What did Jesus mean by faith?’ By logical deduction, he could not have meant that they should have calmed the storm themselves, by faith. They had no idea at that time that such a thing was even possible for Jesus to perform, let alone themselves. Equally, Jesus surely could not have meant that they should have had faith in their physical seamanship abilities to save the boat. He would also not have meant ‘faith in faith itself’ because this aberrant doctrine had not yet been dreamed. Only one meaning appears to be reasonable –“Where is your faith in me?”

He was in the boat with them all the time and if they had faith in who he was then they would not have been so scared. And so it is with us: Jesus must be the sole and only reasonable object of our faith.

The Climax of the Story

Now for the climax of the story. Jesus rose from his rest, rebuked the storm with a word… and it obeyed him! God displayed His awesome power and glory and the result was:

The storm died as suddenly as it has come to life,
His disciples realised just who this Jesus was and wondrously proclaimed, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

We can get so caught up with our preparations and responsible actions that we lose sight of the huge potential of our situation for God to act miraculously. Could this national and international crisis be a time when we will see God arise, speak forth His word, and act? Could this be a time ripe for revival?

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faith

Jewels from John: Part 2

John 4:50 ‘The man took Jesus at his word and departed’. NIV

John 5:23 “He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him”. NIV

John 5:39-40 “ You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” NIV

**John 6:28-29 “They asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.“** NIV