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Jewels from John 4

Jewels from John: Part 4

Jewels from John 4

I am back with another four Jewels from John.

John 10:10  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”.

This comes at the end of Jesus’ analogy of the sheepfold. The watchman (John the Baptist) guards the sheep during the night and when the shepherd comes in the morning he opens the gate and the shepherd (Jesus) leads the animals out to pasture. He makes the point that ‘the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.’  He likens the religious leaders of Israel to thieves, killers, destroyers and cowardly hired hands who fail to protect the sheep. I want to focus on the last half of verse ten.

Jesus came into this world to give life in the fullest sense. In his thirty-three and a half years on this planet, he did nothing to hurt, break, or diminish. He healed the sick, freed the demonised, and even raised the dead. He taught all who would listen that he was the way into eternal life and the gate out of eternal death.

When I talk to unbelievers about the ways of God, they sometimes accuse him of harshness, favouritism, and dominance. Some cite Old Testament accounts of blood, gore, and slaughtered babies. My response, which I believe is the only meaningful response, is to point them to Jesus. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the fullness and the image of the invisible God. He, God the Son, became a man and stood before humanity crying out “Here I am, your God! See me, hear me, and know that I love you!” So I say to those who seek truth, “What do you think of Jesus? Do you think he spoke the truth? Do you think that he was utterly good?”

The distressing thing is that most people who are not born again cannot answer those questions. They do not know because they have not read even one of the Gospels, let alone all four. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but often the folk who have the Gospel data obtained it in a lifeless religious environment as part of a formal induction process. Those who have read bits of the account of the life of Jesus on Earth argue that they still cannot answer my questions because they doubt that the scriptures are genuine and reliable.

At the risk of oversimplifying, let me say this: If you have read all four Gospels then you must surely have discerned that they are true witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ.

They show no collusion with other authors and there are enough minor differences in perspective and detail to have the ring of authenticity. So, given that the Gospels are reliable accounts of his life, then who is this man they write of? Isn’t he one that you would trust and follow? Does he not evidence that he was prepared to suffer huge personal loss to save those who trusted in him?

John 11:33, 35 & 38 ‘When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled … Jesus wept … Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb’.

Too often Jesus is portrayed as stern and austere or suffering stoically. He is projected as an ‘Iron Man’ of pre-action hero times. It is hard to relate to someone like that because we are not at all like this. However, it is a false picture that owes more to grim religiosity than it does to scriptural truth. Jesus felt emotions just like you and I experience emotions. When he saw Mary and Martha grieving over the death of their brother Lazarus, he was moved to tears. When he sat praying before he was arrested, sentenced, and crucified Jesus experienced such emotional pain that he sweated blood! (Luke 22:44)

The Lord Jesus experienced the worst that this sin-sick world can dish up and he did so that he could empathise fully with our human condition. You know that trite expression “I love you to death”? Well, Jesus loved us to death and beyond.

When we go through dark and troubled times, our response to Jesus should never be “But why me Lord?” No, a truer, and more helpful response is, “Thank you Lord for being with me through this and experiencing my pain and turmoil with me.” When we do this, it is as though we can feel an invisible hand on our shoulder.

John 12:47  “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it”.

 Why, I wonder, are we so quick to judge ourselves and each other when Jesus does not judge us?

John 12:47 is not the only place in John’s Gospel that records this truth. For instance, “You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one” (John 8:15).  We have no mandate for judging others. In fact, Matthew says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged”.

Then there is also that incredible statement recorded in John 12:48 “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day”. This passage may well have slipped past you because most of us understand that, whilst the Lord does not judge us now, he surely will on the ‘last day’. But, no! It is we ourselves who, by our responses, stand condemned in the court of heaven. Anyone who hears the truth and does not believe is judged by default. The Court of Heaven, the place of Final Judgement’ is not a place of condemnation to those who know Jesus as Saviour and Lord. For them, it is a place of great joy and worship. The words we will hear from the Master’s lips will not be “You bad, bad person!” but “Welcome home my good and faithful servant.”

Many years ago I read an account of a man’s experience of death and his return from the life beyond. It was the first of many books with similar and sometimes conflicting accounts. Not everything in this book rang true to me and I suspected that the author had added material at some time after his experience. However, I was moved to tears, and I am not saying this euphemistically, when I read the account of his encounter with the Lord of Life, Jesus. Here are a few snippets:

“Far more even than power, what emanated from this Presence was unconditional love. An astonishing love. A love beyond my wildest imagining. This love knew every unlovable thing about me … When I say He knew everything about me, this was simply an observable fact. For into that room along with His radiant presence — simultaneously, though in telling about it I have to describe them one by one — had also entered every single episode of my entire life. Everything that had ever happened to me was simply there, in full view, contemporary and current, all seemingly taking place at that moment … Every detail of twenty years of living was there to be looked at. The good, the bad, the high points, the run-of-the-mill. And with this all-inclusive view came a question. It was implicit in every scene and, like the scenes themselves, seemed to proceed from the living Light beside me. What did you do with your life? … If I had suspected before that there was mirth in the Presence beside me, now I was sure of it: the brightness seemed to vibrate and shimmer with a kind of holy laughter — not at me and my silliness, not a mocking laughter, but a mirth that seemed to say that in spite of all error and tragedy, joy was more lasting still. And in the ecstasy of that laughter I realized that it was I who was judging the events around us so harshly. It was I who saw them as trivial, self-centered, unimportant. No such condemnation came from the glory shining round me. He was not blaming or reproaching. He was simply loving me. Filling the world with Himself and yet somehow attending to me personally. Waiting for my answer to the question that still hung in the dazzling air. What have you done with your life to show Me?”

Ritchie, George G.; Sherrill, Elizabeth. Return from Tomorrow. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

John 13:17 “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”.

I want to end this group of four Jewels from John with a short and simple thought. We need to know what Jesus said, and we find that in the bible.

However, we are blessed not as much by knowing as we are by doing.

Jesus’ words are to be acted on if true blessing is to flow through us to others. D.L.Moody is credited with penning the words, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” Bible study is good and necessary, but in application is the true blessing.

 

Jewels from John: Part 4 Read More »

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Jewels from John: Part 3

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This is the third of six parts in the Jewels from John series. As with the other ‘jewels’, I selected these four passages for this post because I felt the Holy Spirit was directing me to them. I want to keep research and analysis to a minimum and rather reflect on what the Spirit says.

John 6:66-69From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”’  NIV

The background to this passage is as follows: After feeding the 5,000 from practically nothing, Jesus uses this mighty miracle to teach his followers something wonderful about himself. The crowd followed Jesus to the other side of Lake Galilee because they saw him as a free and abundant food source. He corrected this misconception by equating himself to true bread that came down from heaven to give them spiritual and everlasting ‘food’. John 6:51-59 sums up the conclusion of the Lord’s teaching with:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

This confounded the crowd following him and even his disciples muttered, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” As usual, they could not discern the profound spiritual truth clothed in physical analogy. They literalised what Jesus was saying and thought that he was proposing cannibalism where he was the main course! This idea is profoundly disturbing to all of us, but to the Jews of that day, it was blasphemous heresy.

Imagine that! Well, we know better now, in the 21st century, don’t we? Really? What is the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation then? Trans what now? A short definition is ‘the conversion of the substance of the Communion elements of bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ at consecration by the Priest, with only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining’. And that makes those who consume the elements what exactly? Oh, and before we curl our lips and shake our heads pityingly for our RC brethren, consider that in many conservative Protestant churches, only clergy may ‘consecrate’ the communion elements. Then they traditionally hold up the bread and wine before the congregations with the words “The body and blood of Christ.” So, perhaps there are millions of Christians today who get it as wrong as that first crowd of 5,000. Of course, nobody admits to this and covers the matter over with a thick veil of unintelligible theology. On the other hand, those who have been born again of the Spirit know exactly what Jesus was teaching because the Holy Spirit opens their minds to the greater reality beyond the physical.

Intellectually, we also grasp that Jesus was using radically confrontational and physically graphic language to drive home the enormous import of the truth he was teaching. He, Jesus is the source of eternal life, just as bread signifies the source of mundane physical life.

Now the first disciples thought that Jesus was proposing holy cannibalism, then they were right to say that it was a hard teaching that nobody could accept. If this was indeed what Jesus was proposing then the crowds were also right to turn away from him. Even the Twelve didn’t understand what Jesus was truly teaching but they had come to realise that he was the only person on planet Earth who had ‘the words of eternal life’.

My plea is that we re-examine where we take the words of the Lord Jesus and bible authors superficially at surface level only. Pray and reflect deeply until the veil parts and we ‘see’ clearly. There are several things in our lives of Faith where this could apply. For instance:

  • Do you regard the bible as the inerrant source of truth or do you understand that it is the inspired collection of writings that reveals Jesus, the actual source of truth?
  • Is prayer a form of power or is it the means of communicating with the Holy Spirit who is the true source of spiritual power?
  • Are Spiritual Gifts the abilities God gives believers to use or abuse at will, or are they gifts to people in need that we have the privilege of delivering in Jesus’ name?

And so on …

John 7:43 ‘Thus the people were divided because of Jesus’. NIV

Almost everyone, except genuine atheists, accepts that God exists, although not all will use a capital G in ‘God’. Their idea is often that the word describes some non-personal force or even the Universe itself. In any event, talking about God seldom offends anyone to the point of division. However, talk of Jesus as divine causes an entirely different reaction. Some might recognise him as a prophetic figure from the distant past or an example of how to live well. Others might respect him while some will be indifferent to him, but this all changes when he is presented as the eternal personal God. When we present him as this we are often accused of dogmatism, intolerance, extremism, and divisiveness. If not this, then the reaction is one of pitying condescension.

The Apostle Paul quoted Isaiah and referred to Jesus as ‘a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’ The idea is that we either build our eternal lives on Jesus as the cornerstone or we stumble over him and fall flat on our faces. Jesus’s birth divides history into before and after, and he has the same effect on individual lives.

When we speak of Jesus as God incarnate then we immediately offend Jewish, Islamic, Jehovah’s Witnesses and a raft of other religious people. Sadly, we also tend to offend a lot of people who describe themselves as Christians. The WOKE liberal majority like to castigate us as being insensitive to the beliefs of others. Jesus divides, so no wonder he said that he had not come to bring piece but a dividing sword.

These reactions are okay and to be expected. Our response is to act as Jesus did with grace and respect. We don’t need to be divisive even if others feel that need.

If Jesus had separated himself from those he offended just by being whom he was and saying so, then how would he have reached the ones he came to save? And how would we be able to proclaim life in and through him if we did not present him as God incarnate and thus the only way to eternal life?

John 8:53b “Who do you think you are?” NIV

His critics accused Jesus of being demon-possessed because he claimed to be superior to Abraham and they ended with the indignant, “Who do you think you are?” Peter Sellers’ Indian character in the film The Party answered the same question with; “In India, we do not think who we are, we know who we are”.  Jesus, of course, knew exactly who he was. In John’s account of the washing of the disciples’ feet, he records that Jesus assumed the least important duties because he knew who he was, that he had come from heaven, and that all things were under his power. No, it was the Pharisees who did not know who they were.

I want to reflect on the question from a personal perspective. Like most of us, I sometimes lose my sense of purpose and direction. On more than one of these occasions, I have heard the Lord’s voice in my spirit: “Remember who you are.” However, I don’t want to consider my particular calling, or anything like that, but rather apply the question to all of us. Who do you think you are?

When introduced to someone new to you it doesn’t take long before one of you asks the other, “So what do you do?” The answer is usually to do with profession, position, or vocation … what we DO most of the time. Sometimes the person may respond with “I am a Christian” but this is rare. We ask people what they do, not who they are, and even if we phrased it differently the answers would be the same. However, what is more important in life, what we do or who we are?

When we hit the invisible ‘retirement’ metamorphosis many of us tend to conflate what we do with who we are (I should know). Suddenly we have no position, profession, or vocation and as a result, conclude that we must be pretty darn worthless. This also happens when we are unemployed, or incapacitated by an infirmity. Who am I if I am not doing what I think I should be doing?

Well, if I am born again of the Spirit then I am a child of God irrespective of what I do. Because God is absolutely and consistently good he always wants the best for his children. The best, for all Christians, is to be like Jesus. Because of this, we seek to do what best serves this identity. We are not what we do; we do because of who we are.

This perspective makes a profound difference in how we deal with adversity, problems, frustrations, and so on. This is both logical and biblical, but the problem is that we tend to forget who we are. In this, most important matter, we have an inexplicable memory loss.

So, perhaps the challenge is not only “Who do you think you are?” but also, “Remember who you are.”

John 9:1-7 ‘As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing’.  ESV

There are so many interesting aspects to this passage, but I need to focus on just three for now:

1. How could someone born blind be responsible for his own blindness?

The Jews of that time regarded infirmity as a result of sin. So, if parents sinned in some way then God would punish them by causing their child to be born blind or infirm in some other way. Consider what that says about the character and nature of God! Some Jewish scholars taught that people had some sort of pre-existent life before being born into this world. So, the idea here was that perhaps the blind man had himself sinned in his previous life.

Jesus refuted the disciple’s contentions and instead indicated that the man’s blind condition was an opportunity for the glory of God to be displayed. Jesus did not work his miracles randomly and John picked up on this by featuring seven of them in the first part of his book. This recreative miracle is the 6th sign in the Gospel of John and serves as a dramatic demonstration of what Jesus then taught concerning spiritual blindness. It also gave compelling evidence that Jesus was the light of the world.

2. Why do almost all translations use the plural ‘we must work the works of him who sent me’ when the context indicates that Jesus was referring to himself and not necessarily his disciples?

I paused to reflect on this question because it is one of many examples of a weakness in the postmodern way of understanding scripture. Both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament lack vowels. With only consonants to work with it is often possible to translate words in the scriptures in several different ways. This could lead to some confusing and contradictory interpretations of the text. Because of this, the context of the words and phrases is of prime hermeneutical importance. In the passage in question, the context points firmly to the fact that Jesus was referring to himself and not his disciples, either then or now. “I must do my Father’s work because while I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” For one reason or another scholars have focused more and more on the individual words of scripture as the prime determinant of meaning, sometimes contrary to their context. However, context trumps linguistics which should serve to determine primary meaning only when the context does not. This is something worthy of your reflection.

3. Why did Jesus cake the man’s sightless eyes with mud?

Jesus could have healed the man with a word or a touch but instead he chose a strangely different way. He spat onto the red dust at his feet and made clay and smeared it over the man’s eyes. The healing would surely have been effected at that moment but the man could not see anything until he washed off the clay. Commentators have written about the significance of the spit and the name of the pool in which the man washed, but this is all peripheral. The question remains, why did Jesus heal using clay?

I believe that Jesus was declaring himself, to all who have ‘eyes to see’ that he is our creator God. You see, when God created Adam in Eden he fashioned him from the dust of the earth. The name Adam is from an ancient word meaning ruddy like clay. So, millennia later God once again creates life from the dust of the earth.

When he later revealed who he was to the man he healed, he called himself ‘The Son of Man’, and the man responded by worshipping him as he would the Lord God. The Apostle Paul later described Jesus as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-47) and he no doubt remembered that he had witnessed Steven’s powerful testimony to Jesus: ‘Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56). Wonderful, isn’t it!?

I must tell you that I am enjoying producing this Jewels from John series and I hope that you too are as blessed.

Jewels from John: Part 3 Read More »

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Jewels from John: Part 2

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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.

Jewels from John: Part 2 Read More »

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TruthTalks: Jewels from John: Part 1

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Whether we acknowledge it or not, every person born on Earth for the last two thousand years has benefited from Jesus Christ’s influence. His gracious words and deeds did not only affect his disciples or the people of his day. Indeed, individuals and civilisations over the ages have benefited from his influence.

Based on THIS post which is the start of a short series entitled “Jewels from John”, Dr Christopher Peppler talks on four passages from the book of John. Give it a listen, and if you like what you hear reach out, mail us, subscribe, and just generally get in touch.

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TruthTalks: Jewels from John: Part 1 Read More »

Jewels from John

Jewels from John: Part 1

Jewels from John

 

Most of my articles lean towards analysis rather than reflection, so I am starting a new series entitled ‘Jewels from John’.  In each article, I will present insights and reflections on four different passages  from the Gospel of John.

John 1:14  says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” NIV

The Word, the mysterious and humanly incomprehensible second personage of the triune God became a man here on planet Earth. He spent thirty-three and a half years among us. He ‘tabernacled’ (dwelt) right in the middle of the known world, as the tent of Moses had been set up in the centre of the camp of Israel. Moses merely reflected the glory of God when he exited the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle), but Jesus constantly displayed this glory before all people who came into his presence. Those who encountered him probably did not see a shining radiance around him, but they knew that he was unlike any other they had ever met. “Who is this man?” they said, “For I sense the presence of Almighty God in and through who he is and what he says and does.” They couldn’t understand what exactly it was, and one of his disciples, trying to comprehend what he felt, asked him to “Show us the Father”, meaning God. The Lord’s answer was, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

When I consider this, I marvel that God, the creator of all that is, came to Earth to meet with us. In days gone by he had sent messengers on his behalf and had even made brief angel-like appearances. But in the year 3BC this Lord of All incarnated as a Jewish man. He didn’t temporarily use a human body, or possess the mind of a baby, he became fully human. As such, he could move among all types of people displaying the nature and character of the eternal God they had long heard of. And that nature was one of grace and truth. Not judgment and domination, but the purest love and the absolute truth.

Yet, this divine light of grace and truth was neither understood nor received by most people or even the people of God. I find it hard to understand this, yet today the same applies to the men and women of our time. It also applied to me because it took the first thirty years of my life to realise who the Jesus of my Sunday School years really was.

Here is the thing though; if we truly believe what the Apostle John writes about Jesus, then how can we relegate him to any other place than the centre of our lives? How is this possible?

John 1:16-17  reads “Indeed, every one of us has shared in his riches – there is a grace in our lives because of his grace. For while the Law was given by Moses, love and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  J.B.Phillips

Whether we acknowledge it or not, every person born on Earth for the last two thousand years has benefited from Jesus Christ’s influence. His gracious words and deeds did not only affect his disciples or the people of his day. Indeed, individuals and civilisations over the ages have benefited from his influence. The laws of civilised society are rooted in the precepts and commands of the Law of Moses. However, these laws would be empty were it not for the copious grace that Jesus brought to them. Believers and unbelievers alike benefit from his grace and even the most cynical atheists grudgingly admit that Jesus was, and still is, the epitome of goodness and truth.

His influence goes even further. Jesus is the overflowing wellspring of grace, but he is also the source and interpreter of truth.

Pilate asked him “What is truth” and twenty-first thinkers of all persuasions still ask the same question. Jesus answered this question with “I tell you the truth” and said this not once, but seventy-eight times! If we want to know the truth then we need to recall what the Word of Truth said.

Jesus spoke truth directly into the issues of his time, but he also provided every generation with the principles and precepts by which we judge truth today.

He said, “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come”. When speaking of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you”.

Of course, the Lord’s overflowing grace affects us in the ways I have mentioned, but it also determines everlasting life or death. Only in and through him can a human being continue to live on in a relationship with God after this earthly existence Without faith in Jesus, men and women simply continue to live in separation from the source of eternal life. Truly, from the fullness of his grace, we have all received one blessing after another.

It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus called himself the way, and the truth, and the life, for that is just what he is.

John 2:24 says “Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.”  NIV

The people that Jesus would not entrust himself to were not just the Pharisees, but the many who believed in him because they saw the miracles he performed. Many people profess belief because they have witnessed or experienced a significant spiritual event in his name. However, what demands my focus in this verse is that Jesus did not entrust himself to them. As a Jesus-follower we perhaps have the idea that we should be transparent to everyone and freely share our inner lives with all who profess to be Christian. It appears that this is not the example Jesus set.

On one occasion he told us not to cast our pearls to pigs and warned what would happen if we did. This would apply to what we know, who we are, how we think, our state of mind, and so on. Our inner life is precious and not to be shared lightly or indiscriminately. When we ‘wear our heart on our sleeve’ we often pay the price of rejection, disrespect, or breach of confidence. However, sharing our inner life with someone is a step into a deep and lasting friendship. Jesus did not entrust himself to many, yet he shared in a deeply heartfelt way with his three closest disciples, Peter, James and John.  Just so with us.

John 3:27 notes that “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.”  NIV

This was John the Baptist’s response to the complaint that Jesus was also baptising people (although it was his disciples doing this). Perhaps John was saying that a messenger of God can only function in what he has been appointed to. This is why the NLT translates this verse as ‘God in heaven appoints each person’s work’. However, I believe that there is a more general principle here.

In every aspect of our lives, we can only receive what God either indirectly allows or directly gives. It is tempting to attribute the good things in our lives to luck or hard work, and bad things to someone else’s fault. However, James made it clear when he wrote: ‘Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above.’

So, I have developed a reflex of responding to good things with a spoken “Thank you Lord”. I don’t thank God for bad things, but I try to realise that they facilitate learning, maturity, and spiritual growth. I believe that life does not end in the grave, and that the primary purpose in life is to know Jesus, become like him, and to help others do likewise. Therefore anything that serves this purpose is ultimately good for me. Easy to accept intellectually but not as easy to live through, I know. This is why I ‘try to realise’ the value of troublesome things when they manifest in my life.

Be blessed dear readers.

Jewels from John: Part 1 Read More »

About Me

My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I  earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.

Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.

I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus

I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.

If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.