epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Prayer based on Leviticus 15

O God of Our Fathers, we have sin sickness in body and spirit, and our disease seems to be communicable. We spread our illnesses to others we love. Help us, O God. Our condition is desperate. Take away our despair and grant to us a fresh awareness of the atonement. We are restored to fellowship with You and with Your church through the death of Jesus Christ. Grant healing to Your people. Bless our mortal bodies. Heal our broken spirits. Take away those things that cause vexation in our minds and make us vulnerable to attacks of the evil one. Lord, we ask for Your full blessing upon the marriages within Your church and throughout the world. There is so much potential for good within this close union of husband and wife. There is also much danger of evil and sorrow. Heal us, O Lord, and make us clean from all of our iniquities.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Prayer based on Jeremiah 52

Father God, what will Your people do when Your church is led by worldly men who will not listen to Your holy Word. Powerful enemies come against us from the nations of the world. Grant us leaders who will follow You, even if we must die. Though our bodies may soon rest in the grave, we know that we will yet live in Christ. Lord, help us to fulfill the purposes that You have for Your people. The nations come and take from Your people their gold, silver, and bronze, but nothing can separate us from Your love. If we suffer for Your sake at the hands of men, we are greatly blessed. Grant us faith, that we might have eyes to see things as they are. Fill us with Your Spirit. Help us to follow our King Jesus, who died for us. Build up Your true temple through the preaching of the gospel. Gather Your Israel from every nation, as people are granted eternal life in Your Son.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Acts 2

They were told to wait. Jesus told them to wait, and they did wait. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the New Testament church was a massively important event for the church’s fuller understanding of the Scriptures, and for their proclamation of the basic facts of the atonement, and of the kingdom that Jesus had begun. Prior to this great gift, even the apostles were still asking Jesus about the establishment of the kingdom in Israel. After this gift there was a clarity of the gospel message in the mouths of men that had simply been absent before. The facts of the plan of God were certainly taught by the Old Testament prophets, but they were recorded in a hidden way, waiting for the incarnation of the Messiah and for this day of the Holy Spirit.

It was fitting that this all happened on the day of Pentecost, the Old Testament feast of harvesting. From this moment forward the church would be gathering the people of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, the wind and fire of God. Through this power, the voice of God’s message via the apostolic witnesses would go forth boldly, eventually touching every tribe, and tongue, and nation. It was perfectly appropriate for the apostles to be given the special gift of speaking languages unknown to them, as a sign of this revelatory event, the communal baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the new church.

There were many Jews from all over who stayed in Jerusalem between the Passover and Pentecost so that they could participate in both of these festivals. The miracle that day was not only a miracle of speaking, but perhaps also a miracle of hearing, as some within the group gathered there heard and understood in their own languages this spontaneous eruption of a message concerning the great theme of the mighty works of God. There were some that did not hear this. They only heard the babbling voices of men who seemed to them to be drunk.

Peter then explained to the assembled crowd what was happening before their eyes. He said that it was a fulfillment of the verses in Joel concerning coming days. Those last days of which Joel spoke were finally here. He spoke of great spiritual blessing, but he also spoke of frightening manifestations of the wrath of God. The way to gain the former and to avoid the latter would be to call upon the name of the Lord.

The Lord they were to call upon, the Lord that Joel pointed to, was the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who so recently was put to death as a capital criminal on a Roman cross. This was the One whom God provided, the promised Son of David. Jesus had proven Himself before many reliable witnesses as a worker of resurrection signs and wonders. This Jesus was killed by evil men, and a crowd had yelled for His crucifixion. But this all had happened according to the eternal purposes of the Almighty that our sins might be forgiven. God had raised Him up from the dead, a fact to which the apostles could attest. David spoke of this Jesus in Psalm 16 as the unshaken One who would not be abandoned to the world of the dead, but would rejoice forever in the presence of God.

David could not have only been speaking of himself in that psalm, since David’s body had been buried for centuries. David had been enabled by God to see forward to this day of the resurrection of the promised Son who would sit on his throne forever. It is this Jesus, now at the right hand of the Father, who had poured out the promised gift of the Holy Spirit upon His children. This was the phenomenon to which they were witnesses that day. It is this Jesus who is the one Lord Christ, upon whose Name we must call in order to be saved, and it was this Lord Jesus who they had crucified. He is David’s Son and David’s Lord in accord with Psalm 110. This Lord would have enemies, and those who had yelled for His crucifixion must have seemed like perfect candidates for that position.

Now what? The Lord had come, the Lord upon whose Name they were to call to be delivered from wrath, and what had they done to Him? They had crucified Him. Could there be any hope for them? Amazingly the sign of hope begins even before Peter spoke great words of hope. The sign was in their hearts, because they believed what Peter had preached, and were cut to the heart. In accord with the instruction of Joel, they then called upon the Name of the Lord for salvation. The content of that calling upon Him was given by Peter in His direction that they repent and receive baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. This gift of forgiveness and blessing through the blood of the Lamb was the long-expected promise to Abraham and to all who rejoiced in the coming day of the Messiah. The promise was not only to them, but to their children, and to all who were far off from the covenant practices of Israel. This is Peter’s inspired New Testament understanding of the closing words of Joel 2. Three thousand people heard it and believed it, and they were baptized that day.

These people were gathered into kingdom life. They devoted themselves to the activities of daily worship in many homes throughout Jerusalem. They heard the Word, gave of their possessions, celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and prayed together. There was an unusual taste of true spiritual blessing built on the foundation of the death of Christ for His people. This was the Word that was proclaimed to them, and this was the truth that they ate and drank in the meal instituted by their Lord. They were full of the Spirit of God, and it showed forth in worship, thankfulness, and mutual submission, and the Lord was pleased to keep on adding people to their number. There is no better plan for church health and life than this one, available for us in every generation. Nonetheless, it is a plan that requires the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for it to be real. By this power from on high may the grace of God be known and received. May the Name of Jesus be exalted throughout the earth, and may many people see in His life and death for us the greatest message of the works of our great saving God for all who are in Christ.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Acts 1

The book that we call “Acts” is the second of a two-part series written by Luke, a companion of the Apostle Paul. His first book, the Gospel according to Luke, also begins with a similar salutation to one “Theophilus,” a name that means “lover of God.” That first book covered the life of Jesus Christ through the time of His final ascension to heaven as a resurrection man. This second book recaps the period of the post-resurrection appearances of the Messiah, and then tells the story of the work of Jesus through His church ending with the Apostle Paul under house arrest in Rome.

During the forty days of our Lord prior to His final ascension, these chosen men received many convincing proofs that Jesus was alive. Jesus also taught them during these sporadic appearances to them over those days. All of this was only a beginning. There was much more to come for the Apostles and for the church, but at this time they did receive commands from Him, one of which was that they were to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father. Jesus was further preparing them for an experience that John the Baptist had spoken of earlier, an event that He and John referred to as being “being baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

It would be expected that the disciples would have many questions of the Lord of the Resurrection. The one that is recorded is about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Israel was under the dominion of the Roman Empire. Many Old Testament prophecies looked forward to a coming time of glory for the Promised Land. A taste of that had already taken place in the days of Cyrus, when the Lord brought back a small captive band to resettle Israel as those who had been released from exile. As great as their story is, it could not possibly have been the complete fulfillment of the great word of the Lord. The disciples wondered if the kingdom would now come to Israel in a much fuller way. Would this victorious Son of David set up a throne of authority in Jerusalem, and usher in a time of blessing where the lion would lie down with the Lamb?

The plan of God was very different than this. The church would be a Spirit-filled witness to the truth of the cross and the resurrection of the Messiah, not only to Israel, but to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to far off places all over this planet. That would take some time. They would have to pursue this great mission without the bodily presence of Jesus of Nazareth. He would be alive and reigning, but from a higher throne than any mountain of the earth could afford. It is from this present heaven, (the dwelling of God, His holy angels, and justified departed men) that He would one day return on clouds of glory together with all the inhabitants of that place at the time of the renewal of this place. Until that time, the church would not be setting up nations on earth, but would proclaim the message of Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and the kingdom of God.

Then He was gone in a display of subtle divine transcendence. The disciples remained here, behind enemy lines in a way, but in another way they would be laying divine claim upon this earth in the Name of the One who had said that the meek would inherit it. They had been given a holy task to build up this gathering of the Kingdom of heaven that Jesus called His church. They returned to Jerusalem where they were to wait for the gift of the Spirit. There were more than the eleven there. The group also included Mary the mother of Jesus, some other women, and the half-brothers of Jesus, as well as others, about 120 in all, around the size of an average little church. This was the total of the Jesus movement in the entire world at that time, the equivalent of one little church believing in Christ and the resurrection.

The first issue that they attended to in that place of prayer was something that they believed they should do according to the Scriptures. They had come to understand the truth about Judas. They knew from their own experience that he had been a guide to those who arrested Jesus, but the Scriptures told them more about him, that he would be gone, which he was, and that another man would “take his office.” This is a quote from Psalm 109:8, and it refers to a position of oversight, with an understanding that a man would be gone in disgrace. Peter called upon the little flock to seek God’s will for the choice of someone to restore the twelve to their full number in what he saw as a fulfillment of the psalm.

They understood that the future blessing of the church was in the hands of the Lord, who gave His own blood for the establishment of His kingdom. They sought Him in prayer, because they understood that He knew the hearts of all. Two approved candidates were put forward, perhaps by the existing apostles, and one man was chosen by casting lots, a method that we do not entirely understand. What we do see is that they were trying to be obedient to the Scriptures and submissive to the King of the church. They did not approach their duties as men who were infallible in judgment. From the rest of Acts and the remaining books of the Bible, it would appear that Luke’s companion Saul, later called Paul, would be God’s choice as final one of the twelve. The worthy example for us here is that the leaders of the church of Jesus Christ were seeking to follow the Word of God and the Lamb. They did this knowing that God would have His way, and that His secret will for the progress of His Name was far better than anything that even the most pious and intelligent leaders of the church could ever devise.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

John 21

There were several resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. Even in the previous chapter our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples without Thomas, and then to the disciples including Thomas. Each of these appearances is offered as proof of one central miracle, the resurrection of Christ from the dead. In the final chapter of John’s gospel we read of a final extended interaction between several of the disciples and the risen Lord, providing us with important direction for the ministry of the apostles, and for the progress of the church throughout the centuries to come.

It is amazing to think of the disciples returning to their previous lives, at least to some degree, after Jesus had already shown Himself to them as risen from the dead. Here we find them fishing, not for men, but for fish, and that without success. They caught nothing all night long. Jesus, unknown to them at first, instructs them to cast the net on the other side of the boat, and they then caught more fish then they were able to handle. The Savior, who earlier in His ministry had walked on the water, is in charge of all the creatures in the sea, but more than this he also rules over the hearts of men. He intends to employ His church as fishers of men.

This Lord Jesus Christ, now the first man resurrected to immortality, is certainly known to them, but He is also mysterious in His being, so that, in some sense, it would appear that they do not seem to know Him. This Jesus cooked breakfast for them. Even in this glorious condition, He is serving the church, just as He was before His death when He washed their feet, and especially when He went to the cross to die for them.

If we remind ourselves that it is our glorious King who gives these men bread and fish, it should not surprise us that we are being called to humble service, a service that we should not presume to be only a part of our brief time here on earth as mortal creatures. Jesus defeats death for us, not service. There is no reason for us to conceive of eternity as devoid of opportunity to express our care for God and for each other. We begin that care now, care that is based on our love for Jesus Christ.

Peter is asked three times with some slight variation this question: “Do you love me?” Prior to the cross, Peter had denied the Lord three times as Christ had predicted he would, and now he affirms his love for him three times. The task that He is given, in order to show forth the love that he professes, is the feeding of sheep. People are the sheep referred to here, and the Word of God is the food for which our souls hunger. Jesus is not above giving physical food to His disciples, yet the primary way that Peter, and all of the ministers of the Lord’s church, are to feed the flock of God, is as servants of the Word. We need food for our bodies, but we also need sustenance for our souls. Ministers of the Word need to bring the Word of God to the people of God. To do this well they must love Christ, love His church, love the message of the gospel, and love the Scriptures; and they must be willing to devote themselves to bringing the whole counsel of God to hungry people.

This is what it means for such men to follow Jesus Christ. They must love Him more than their own lives, or they will always choose their own respect before men and themselves above Him. Peter is being called to give Himself over to Christ, the church, the gospel, and the Word, as a dead man in the eyes of the powers that be in this world, but as a living lover of Christ in the eyes of heaven. This is the way for such a man to glorify God, and this is the way that the risen Lord of the church directs that His Name would be made known.

The specific pathway for any one minister of the Word or any one member of the body of Christ belongs to the secret things of God. It is beyond us to know how long we will live, exactly how we will suffer, and what the precise outcome of our efforts will be. It is enough for us to find our identity in the One who serves, and to love the One who first loved us. How long John will live compared to Peter, and how either one of these men will die is not their business. We need to obey God and trust Him with all the unknowns of our existence.

The final chapter of the four gospels ends with these words: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” This is a fitting conclusion to these four blessed accounts of the life of our Lord. We do not know everything about Him, just as we do not have exhaustive knowledge of ourselves, but there is far more to be known in Him than there is to be known in us. What we do know is enough for us to give our lives to the Son of God who gave His life for us. It is our privilege to rejoice in Him always, and to serve Him as those who earnestly entreat the Father with these words, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Monday, May 25, 2009

A Threefold Cord

Mark and Nikki - 5/24/2009 – “A Threefold Cord”

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Prayer based on Ecclesiastes 4

O Father, the troubles of this world are not small. Some face oppression every day. Even strong men and women may despair of life. Help us to enjoy a handful of quietness whenever we are able. Thank You for the blessing of fellowship in Your church. A three-fold cord is not easily broken. We are not alone. Grant us unity in the Spirit as we walk through these days under the sun. All the kings of the earth and their impressive kingdoms reach their appointed limits. Great leaders may have wisdom, but they also have some folly and arrogance, and even the best of them make some measure of trouble for themselves and others. Our King is in the heavens, and He does whatever pleases Him. Yes, our Lord does all things well.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Prayer based on Jeremiah 51

Father God, who can stand when You bring judgment upon a nation? Who will stand when You bring judgment against the world? What a Babylon we live in. The world is against You and Your people. You have stirred up the Spirit of one nation to bring down another land. Those who trust in their treasures will not stand when foreign enemies come by Your Hand. You bring forth the rain and the snow. You control the wind and the waves. You formed all things. You use armies for Your purposes. Idols are formed by men. These false gods are nothing and they can form nothing. You are God. If You are against the world, against men, against idols, You can bring about a complete destruction of a whole nation, breaking that land in pieces. Your purposes against any nation shall stand. Did we really imagine that any nation would be able to remain by her own power? You will repay the nations of the world for the way they have expressed their hatred against Your church. With a Word You create, and with a Word You will destroy. If we are able to even live through such an ordeal, it is a matter of great mercy. Why are we so amazed by the trials that we face when we live amongst a world that will surely face judgment? Did not the prophets face great difficulties and the violence of men? Why are our expectations so different from their earthly destiny, when You will surely judge men and nations? Lord, there is no safety in any place where we live. There is no land on this earth where we can think that we will have peace and prosperity. It is not by the wisdom or power of worldly empires that the new heavens and the new earth will be established. When You say the word, every Babylon shall sink and rise no more. Our safety is in You. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our home is in the body of Christ. We are eternally grateful for Your many mercies.

Friday, May 22, 2009

John 20

The Old Testament teaches us, in places too numerous to mention, about a coming resurrection from the dead. One of the most obvious passages is at the end of Daniel, where we read, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2) This doctrine of a general resurrection was accepted by many Jews, including the Pharisees, Mary and Martha of Bethany, and the disciples of Jesus. What people did not yet understand from the Scriptures was the doctrine of a singular resurrection of the Messiah well in advance of the general resurrection. This too was taught in places like Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, and in a more subtle way by prophetic books like Zechariah and Jonah. To see this teaching we need to look for a singular figure who is connected to a group, where the fate of the one person is determinative for the fate or encouragement of the larger congregation, and where the victory over death experienced by the One is said to be a source of help to the many as they face their own lives of difficulty. If the One is already victorious, but the many are waiting in faith for the fulfillment of their deliverance, then we have a doctrine of the resurrection of the Messiah well in advance of the general resurrection. It was this point of truth that the disciples had not yet understood from the Bible, a point that Jesus had already predicted and had clearly taught to the twelve.

Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John were among the first eyewitnesses to this amazing happening. The proof was presented in God’s characteristically humble manner. We are told of a stone that was out of place, and a tomb that was not entirely empty. The body of Jesus was not there, but it was what remained in the tomb that was presented by John as most impressive. The linen cloths were lying there that once wrapped the dead body of the Messiah. These must have been arranged in such an amazing way that they told a story by themselves, a story of a body risen out from them. The placement of the smaller face cloth to the side must have been one of the first actions of the risen Lord. Perhaps it would have been impossible to reconstruct the entire fact of resurrection just from this evidence, but John recorded this as decisively impressive for Peter and himself. They saw the way that that linen cloths were lying there, and they saw the way that the face cloth was folded up by itself, and they believed.

The disciples went back to their homes, and helping us to focus on what happened to Mary Magdelene, who finally saw evidence more powerful than the linen cloths. She saw Jesus. She did not recognize Him immediately. Like the two men in Luke 24, for a time she seemed to be prevented from seeing our resurrected Messiah, presuming Him to be the person in charge of the burial garden. It is when He said her name, “Mary,” that she became aware of this exciting fact. He had risen from the dead, and He was alive.

Jesus instructed Mary, “Do not cling to Me.” The reason that He gave had to do with the fact that He would not be remaining forever on the earth, but would soon depart for the heavens. This fact requires our further consideration. One day, the resurrected Jesus will walk the earth again. He did this for a brief time after His resurrection, but then He departed in what He refers to here as an ascension to the Father. There is another realm beyond what we see on this earth. The Father reigns from that realm, and that place can receive a physical body. It is from that place, the present heavens, that Jesus showers us with great blessings, including the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Mary brought the word of her encounter with the Lord back to the disciples, but they were huddled together behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. Then Jesus, somehow travelling inside that locked room, appeared physically to them. Naturally there was much about this that is very shocking and even confusing to us. Here we have a body risen to immortality walking upon the earth. This is something that we have never seen. What we need to hear is that He spoke words of peace and commissioning to His apostles. They had peace with God, and they would be messengers of this great divine shalom and the forgiveness of God to thousands of others. Heavenly gifts would come by the work of the Holy Spirit, poured out from on high by God. The emblems of the death of Christ, by which our blood-bought peace was won, were still visible.

These vivid proofs that the One before their eyes had to be the same man who was so recently nailed to a cross were seen by those who were in the room, but one of the twelve was missing, and He was skeptical of the report of the others. He needed to see with his own eyes, and eight days later he did see. He was not corrected when he responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus is Yahweh risen from the dead. He is the God of creation and providence, through whom all things were made. He gladly receives our worship, and we should bring to Him this worship, for it is what He deserves.

We are not yet allowed to see what Thomas saw, but we do have the great privilege of hearing the Word and believing. As an aid in this we have this and three other gospels, as well as many New Testament letters, and the whole of the Hebrew bible. We have ample proof not only of a coming general resurrection, but we have come to believe with certainty that can only be a gift from above, that the Son of God has already risen. Because of these facts, we are encouraged through our life of trials even now, knowing that as He is, so we shall be.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

John 19

When Jesus was being questioned by the priestly authorities, He was slapped by a guard. The thought of something like that happening is so jarring, because of who Christ is and what He has done for us. He is the eternal Son of God who was willing to take our hell upon Himself in order to bring heaven and earth together again. The mission that He accomplished is so big, and He is personally so far from having any fault in Himself, that it is repulsive to think about a person deciding to lift His hand against Him and actually strike Him in the face. But that action was only the beginning of revolting indignities perpetrated against our holy king. And though Pilate had Jesus flogged, and the soldiers mocked Him and caused Him pain, we cannot forget that He was in this spot because of us. He was there to atone for our sins.

There was no guilt in Jesus Christ. Pilate knew at least a part of what these words meant. Yet somehow he permitted this all to take place. Did he imagine that this kind of humiliation and degradation would satisfy those who were against Jesus? If so, he was wrong. The chief priests and officers demanded His crucifixion. The governor was trying to avoid any responsibility for whatever the crowd might do, yet he seemed to permit the worst, though He knew Jesus did not deserve the cross according to the rules of Roman law. The Jews knew this as well, but they first tried to make the case that He deserved death as a blasphemer according to Jewish law since he claimed to be the Son of God.

The use of this title was somehow alarming to Pilate. He went back into his headquarters and spoke to Jesus again, attempting to question him further without any real success. He said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” This is just the matter that caused such controversy among the Jewish leaders earlier, that Jesus said He came from heaven, from His Father who reigns in that place. But Jesus would not speak to Pilate about this. He had previously stated that His kingdom was not of this world. The governor was puzzled by Jesus’ lack of interest in any answer that might induce Pilate to free Him. This kind of behavior had to be very unusual. Pilate had the power of life and death over people. Yet Jesus testified to the truth that Pilate was under the sovereign authority of Almighty God. That point was proven soon by the fact that Pilate was trying to release Jesus, and was unsuccessful in his efforts, since someone greater than Pilate was in charge here.

The way that the leaders of the Jews seemed to achieve their aim to have Jesus put to death according to Roman authority was by making the case that Jesus was a threat to Roman order. This did move Pilate, since there were those who were clearly willing to make the case that unless he consented to this death by crucifixion, he was no friend of Caesar. Their reasoning was interesting. Jesus was clearly presenting himself as some king. This seemed to be generally accepted. Any unauthorized king in Palestine was by definition a threat to Roman authority there. Therefore, Jesus was an enemy of Caesar, and if Pilate was a friend of Caesar, he would agree to the crucifixion of Jesus. The error in this argument is that Jesus was not leading a rebellion against the civil authority of nations. As He had stated, His kingdom was a different sort of kingdom than the kingdoms of this world. Pilate delivered Jesus over to be crucified.

Then it actually happened. Jesus was put on a Roman cross. Psalm 22 was fulfilled, a psalm that described this crucifixion with some definite but veiled details centuries such a punishment was apparently used by any nation. Pilate’s inscription stood. Here was the King of the Jews, punished for us on a Roman cross. Even the detail of the dividing of His clothes among the soldiers took place according to that Scripture, and this was done by soldiers, not by followers of Christ trying to make Him look like the suffering hero of Psalm 22.

Jesus took care of one remaining detail as a son of Mary, and further fulfilled other passages from the Hebrew Bible in His words and actions, and then it was all over. The Son of God, the great Teacher, the powerful Healer, the hope of the world, was dead. He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. He was gone. There can be no doubt about this. The soldiers confirmed it. There were observers of these events who testified to them. John saw blood and water come from His side, which had been pierced by a soldier’s spear. Reliable witnesses from the ranks of Jewish leadership, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, saw to the burial of His body with the permission of Pilate, and they laid the body of the Son of Man in a borrowed tomb.

Here we mourn, at least for a time. Though we have come to rightly boast in the cross, we cannot help but feel that what was happening here was horribly wrong. He was innocent. He could have stopped this. He was powerful. But now He was gone. It is the resurrection that reassures us that He was right in allowing this greatest of all disgraces to be committed against Him. This was what was necessary for our salvation. It was not enough for Him to be slapped, beaten, mocked, stripped, and pierced. He had to die, because the wages of sin is death. It was the will of the Father that the Son would pay those wages for us. It was, in some sense, the will of the Lord to crush Him, according to Isaiah 53.

Much good came from this one death. We could never have know resurrection without the death of Christ occurring first. The blood that showered forth from this Lamb has now become for us a fountain of cleansing water. We are healed. We are clean. We are restored. We are forgiven. We are alive.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

John 18

In every account of the death of Christ given to us in the gospels, the fact of the betrayal of our Lord is central. When we consider the Lord’s suffering for us, we are supposed to remember that it was not outsiders who turned Jesus over to those who would kill Him, but a particular insider, who knew His habits and plans, and thus knew where Jesus could be found that night. He did what He did by using the weapons of civil power that were in the hands of religious authorities in Jerusalem. The Romans allowed these religionists to have a band of soldiers at their direction. Judas went to the chief priests and the Pharisees so that this kind of force could be used against the King of kings, as if they would have the power, and Jesus would be taken against His will.

This plot, and the events that were about to transpire, were known to Jesus. We are reminded that He willingly went to His death, as Isaiah 53 had revealed many centuries before. He understood the necessity of His death for us, He understood the role of the various parties involved in that death, and He understood that all of this would be a fulfillment of the Scriptures and of His own earlier words. His behavior from this moment on is an exhibition of settled trust and clarity of determined purpose as He willingly humbles Himself for our salvation. The behavior of everyone else is very different from this. How are we even to understand what the soldiers are doing here? They have weapons, and they have their target in view, and He is identifying Himself and apparently surrendering to them immediately. Is this so unusual a thing that they need to draw back and fall to the ground? They do not appear to be in control at this point. Yet we are reminded that the words that Jesus uses to identify Himself, “I-AM,” are the same words that God used to identify Himself to Moses. While the soldiers may not have understood that, they are obviously affected by something that we cannot entirely see. The calm determination of Jesus shines forth in stark contrast to this unexpected terror on the part of those who were sent to take a man into custody who is willingly surrendering to them.

This calm resignation to be the Lamb of God exhibited by Jesus is also quite different than what we see from Simon Peter. He has to be corrected immediately by His Lord as He enters into battle against the soldiers, injuring one of them. Jesus is ready to drink the cup of God’s wrath for us. Peter puts His sword away, and Jesus is taken as a bound prisoner to the religious authorities. Jesus will willingly die for the people of God. Peter does not know what to do. Joined apparently by the gospel writer, the apostle follows the action almost as if he were some kind of undercover spy. He denies that He is a disciple of Jesus when he could have easily said nothing. Jesus seems content to say almost nothing, despite great provocation. Once again, though He is the prisoner, He is in charge, and He is in control of Himself. What He has done during these three years has been done publicly, and He has done nothing wrong. There is no need for spies. Jesus is not a terrorist. Nonetheless He is struck by an officer. Now He has not only been bound, He has been beaten, and there is much more to come.

Peter is again overwhelmed by the inquiries of those who seem to recognize Him as a disciple. For the second and third times, He denies it, and the rooster crows, fulfilling the earlier prediction of the Lord. Peter has now lied and denied His Savior three times. Jesus, on the other hand, will not lie at all. He is soon brought before the civil authorities, and is even interviewed by Pilate, the Roman governor, as this religious mob, trying to stay ceremonially clean, is clearly determined to see an innocent man put to death. As the Jewish Messiah is questioned directly by Pilate, Jesus will not defend Himself. He does admit that He is King, but tells Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. Everything that Jesus is doing is about the kingdom of God. This is why He was born, this is why He taught what He taught, and this is why He would die. He is establishing a kingdom from God, a kingdom from heaven, a kingdom that will last long after the fall of the Roman Empire. This kingdom is a gathering of those who listen to His voice, a gathering of those who are of the truth. This is the testimony of Jesus, but not a word of it is designed to avoid the cross.

Pilate is not willing to consider the truth claims of Jesus and His kingdom at that moment, but He does make this important statement of the truth: “I find no guilt in Him.” Pilate perhaps meant only that Jesus was not guilty of breaking any civil law that would even remotely justify His execution. More than this can be plainly said. There was no guilt in Jesus of any kind. Even the secret sins of our hearts that show us to be deficient in our love for God and for others, even these secret sins were completely absent in His soul. He had no guilt. That sinless perfection was necessary in order for Him to be the Lamb of God for us.

This is truth. We are guilty men, like the robber Barabbas, but the sinless Son of God has taken away our horrible guilt, and has paid our overwhelming debt. Yet the crowd preferred a Barabbas to God the Son, the true King of the Jews. This is betrayal. Yet it will do us no good to condemn Judas, the soldiers, Peter, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the crowd, and Pilate, unless we are also willing to see our own guilt. He stood condemned in our place. He sealed our pardon with His blood. We were the guilty ones. We may have even been insiders to His circle of followers when we spoke against Him and sinned against Him. We certainly have denied Him. Yet He has accomplished what only He could do. He is our effectual Savior. He was sovereign over His own suffering, and it was His will to give us eternal life through His blood.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

John 17

Jesus is heading toward the cross. He has told His disciples as much as they can bear about what He is doing, and about what is coming soon for Him and for them. Now He lifts up His eyes to heaven, and He prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” Jesus has revealed to His disciples, and even to those who would not abide in His Word, that He has come from the Father, and that He is going to the Father. The pathway back to heaven will be through the cross. There have been times when His enemies wanted to arrest Him and to kill, but His time had not yet come. Now the time has come. He asks the Father to glorify Him, so that He might glorify the Father. Through the great events of the cross and the resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth will obey the Father to the fullest extent possible, and He will give eternal life to all those given to Him by the Father. All of this will be supremely great and supremely revealed.

This eternal life that we have been given begins now. Even now we can know the Father and the Son. We can glorify the Lord in the life He has prepared for us here on earth. But this cannot be everything. There must be more. The Old Testament prophets insisted that there was more to come. Jesus taught about a better life to come, a life of the richest happiness and blessedness. That life requires our entrance into glory, and ultimately, our own glorification in body and soul. For Jesus, His glorification is a return to a glory that He set aside for a time in order to work our salvation. For us, it is a new experience of glory that we have only just begun to taste.

The life of sacrifice for the Son of God began before the cross. He gave Himself to His disciples in His life before He gave Himself to them in His death. It cost Jesus something to manifest God’s Name through His person and works to the disciples that the Father had given to Him. He came from above, and lived here below. He was a Teacher who cared about the people that He taught. He faithfully brought them the message, and He patiently demonstrated who He was before their eyes, even performing great signs before the world. He did what needed to be done in order to prepare them for the ultimate sign of the Kingdom in His own resurrection. He would soon be glorified in them as the message would go forth everywhere.

Jesus would be going to the Father, but these disciples would remain, except for the one who is called here the son of destruction, Judas, who would betray Him. The Lord prays for these disciples, that the Father would keep them in the Name that He had been given, that they would be one in the Name of Jesus the Christ. He sought the fullness of joy for them, a joy that comes from being in Him. They would remain in the world for the job that had been reserved for them according to the decree of God. They would be guardians and teachers of their Master’s Word. To do their job, they needed to remain in the world and to face the world’s hatred, because this great Word needed to be brought to the world. They needed to be set apart for the Word, for the truth, and this is what Jesus asks the Father to do. Jesus would be set apart on the cross, and these disciples would be set apart for the preaching of Christ crucified.

Having asked the Father to bless the eleven, Jesus asks God to bless us. His prayer was not only for the remaining disciples who would have such an important foundational ministry in the New Testament church. He explicitly prays for all those who would believe in Him through their word. The message of the faithful ambassadors of Christ has not changed throughout the centuries. It is a settled Word that was delivered once for all time, for all generations to come.

Jesus prays that we would be one, one in Him, one in the truth of the Word that He had taught His disciples, one in the presentation of that truth to the world over the years that would follow, one in the Father and in the Son. All of this oneness was for the purpose that the world would receive this settled Word of Jesus Christ, so that people would believe and find life in Him.

The task that Christ gave to us in proclaiming Him, His cross, His resurrection, His kingdom, is a heavenly task, a glorious task. Our destiny is a heavenly destiny and a glorious destiny. We have a taste of that glory and a glimpse of that glory as we go forth with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of how the world may react to that Word in one place and time or another. If we suffer for the Word and seem to have little fruit, the privilege is still ours. It is a glorious gift that we have been given to suffer for the Name. And we know that we are in the Father and the Son, and that we are loved by the Father and the Son.

Nonetheless the fellowship and communion that we enjoy with Jesus now in the gospel is not enough for the Son of God. He desires that we would be with Him where He is going, and that we would have the joy of beholding Him in His glory, that those who suffer with Him below, would be glorified with Him above. The whole of Adam’s world will not have that privilege, but we who know God, and who know that He sent Jesus Christ to be our atoning sacrifice, we will know His Name now and forever, and we will have His love in us, because He will be in us.

All these things Jesus stated before the Father in this great prayer. All of these requests of the Son of God have surely been granted. They can be received by us as certain promises.

Monday, May 18, 2009

John 16

To fall away from Jesus Christ is an appalling idea. When we consider the greatness of our Savior, His unique qualifications to be our Mediator, and His great works in accomplishing our salvation, when we think of the fullness of all divine attributes in Him, and His wonderful sympathy for us in His perfect humanity, we should readily admit what a shocking thing it is to turn away from Him. Yet it is only by the power of God that anyone is kept in the faith.

There have always been powerful internal and external pressures moving men away from the Lord. It is shocking when these pressures come from those who gather together in the Name of God. Think of these words: “They will put you out of the synagogues.” Why would the followers of Jesus be excluded from the places of Jewish worship? The disciples would believe that this Jesus was the Messiah, and that was not allowed. Even worse than casting them out, there would be some who would be so zealous in their presumed service of God in this perverse direction, that they would imagine that killing one of the followers of Jesus was an act of devotion. Such people would be greatly deceived. They did not know the Father or the Son.

Jesus was approaching a great turning point. He would soon continue His role as our Prophet, Priest, and King at the right hand of the Father in heaven. From that place of power He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to His church. This would be a good and necessary gift for the progress of the church throughout the world. This New Testament age blessing of the Spirit does not imply that the Holy Spirit was uninvolved in the life of Old Testament Israel. He is always necessary for any real faith. Yet in the gospel age something bigger would spread throughout the world and would find its great fulfillment in the resurrection of the dead. This began in a fresh new way with the gift to the New Testament church that Jesus spoke about here.

It would be by the work of the Holy Spirit that the world would see the truth of sin, of the need for a righteousness that can only come through Christ, and of the coming judgment from God. These are deep topics, but we cannot understand them as we need to all at once. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to the truth on these and other matters at a pace that we can bear. Working in complete agreement and common purpose with the Father and the Son, the Spirit would guide the church into all truth, particularly concerning things that are to come.

When Jesus speaks of things to come, they do not yet seem to really understand. In a little while they will see Him no longer, and then again in a little while more, they will see Him. When He is gone, they will mourn, but the world will rejoice. When He returns, their sorrow will turn to joy. At the time these words were spoken they were very mysterious. Even now they admit of two meanings. The first and most likely is that He is referring to His imminent death and resurrection. The second possibility is that He is referring to the long period after His ascension, finally culminating in His glorious return. The reason why it appears that He is somewhat mysteriously referring to His death and resurrection is that the behavior of His disciples recorded in the Scripture in connection with the death of Jesus best matches the Lord’s prophecy here. The disciples do not mourn after Jesus’ ascension. They know where He is, and they are filled with joy. But prior to the resurrection they are frightened and dejected.

The resurrection of Jesus will be the beginning of a great age, an age that we are in even now during the time of the gospel. Already we are encouraged to ask for things in the Name of Jesus Christ our Mediator. When we go to the present heavens and when Christ returns, then we will have the fullness of joy and the fullness of asking and receiving. In that day we will know of the Father’s love, but we do not need to wait for that day in order to believe in His love and to experience His love. The love of the Father for us is a fact that has ample evidence in the history of our redemption. The cross tells us a story, and the story of our individual lives shows the personal mercy of God to us in drawing us to the One who died for our sins.

Even though we know these things to be true, this does not change the reality that in this world we will have tribulation. For the disciples that Jesus spoke with that day they were about to face a horribly wrenching experience. The Shepherd would be struck down, and the sheep would all be scattered. Even after the ascension of Christ, the progress of the church in her early decades would be very challenging. The church would face opposition from the Jews and from civil authorities. The men that Jesus was speaking to would all suffer for His Name. They would be imprisoned, beaten, ridiculed, and even put to death.

Throughout that great trial, they would be able to know that Jesus was not alone. He would be with the Father. Meditating upon that fact can bring us great peace. Jesus, our Mediator, is with the Father on high right now. He has overcome the world. In the strength of His resurrection love, we are given the power to walk through this world of tribulation, knowing that in Him we too have overcome the world and have certain resurrection glory. We lay hold of this fact, and we lay hold of Him, and we are kept in the faith by the power of our resurrection God, so that we will not utterly fall away.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Prayer based on Leviticus 14

Lord God, we thank You for the great work of cleansing that we have received through the blood of Your Son. Our hearts have been sprinkled and we have been declared clean by Your grace. Our great High Priest has done everything necessary that we might have access to You. We have in Him the perfect offering for our salvation. Your Son Jesus has made full atonement for us. Look on us in our poverty, and help us to be grateful for Your mercy. All that we have is Yours, O God. We have been marked with the blood of Christ. The oil of Your Holy Spirit has been poured out on our heads. Please bless our families, and protect us from the disease of unrepentant sin. Help us to call upon Your name regularly, that we might know the fullest assurance of the most perfect cleansing. Make our homes and churches clean by Your grace, that we might know Your presence and Your power in our times of prayer and fellowship.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Prayer based on Jeremiah 50

Lord God, in every age there would seem to be a superpower. Each one imagines itself to be invincible. Can we see nothing from history? Will we not believe Your Word? You make a people of power to be an instrument of Your plan for a brief time. When their pride reaches a summit, they will be brought low, like all the superpowers that have come before. Your wrath, O Lord, is far too much for the mightiest Babylon. How strong is Your Son, and how invincible in His Kingdom! We marvel at Your ways, O God. Your Son came in weakness. When He died on the cross, it would have appeared to every observer that His days were gone forever. How could this one man be anything compared to mighty empires like the Assyrians or the Romans? Yet He has established a kingdom that shall not perish. Through His death and resurrection a temple is being built up that will never be torn down. All those who have proudly defied Your Son will find an enemy in Him that is glorious in mighty power. The God-Man who died on a cross will come again to judge the living and the dead. We rest in Him. Whatever strength or wisdom other kingdoms may seem to have, it is only for a moment. Our Jesus lives, and His Kingdom is forever. The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. How we long for the fulfillment of all Your promises! We dream about the peaceful valleys of Your great Land! There we will live in security and joy forever. Every brutal enemy will be harmless against us in that great day.

Friday, May 15, 2009

John 15

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” If we are ever to grow in spiritual fruitfulness, we must make our peace with, and eagerly celebrate the first principle of Christian growth. Jesus is the vine. That is a pride-killer for people who imagine that we are the source of our own well-being. Without a heavy dose of God-reliance, we will never be fruitful. Whatever comes from our own homemade root cannot be the true Kingdom of God.

There is a second principle that goes with it and may be even harder for us to embrace. Our Father in heaven is the vinedresser. He will use His pruning sheers as the expert Gardner He is in order to bring about the best result, but it is normally going to hurt. The question that the Father asks us is this, “Do you trust Me?” The people of God are His plant, and He knows how to take away the unfruitful branches, and how to work out His providence to produce a greater result.

To abide in the vine must be the same thing that Jesus spoke of in an earlier place as abiding in His Word. It is His Word that makes us clean, and it is His Word that makes us fruitful. Apart from Him and His Word we have no beginning in spiritual things, and apart from Him and His Word we will never grow in spiritual usefulness. When we abide in Him, and His Word abides in us, we ask Him for things that are an expression of godly desires, and we can trust that it will be done for us. (Remember that everything agreeable to His perfect decrees will come to pass, yet there are many answers to prayer that we will not see here and now. We do have Him with us according to His promise, and having Him we have everything.)

If we want to abide in the Father and the Son, and to continue in His Word, we should obey that Word. To do this is to abide in His love. This is the way to have the joy of Jesus in us, that our joy may be full. He tells us the sum of what it means to obey His commandments, that we are called to a life of love. That love proceeds first from the vine. It is the fruitfulness of divine love that we receive and then respond to with love for God, and then especially with a love for one another that is the fruit of the love that we have received through Jesus Christ.

The supreme display of love has come for us in Jesus laying down His life for us, His friends. When He went to the cross, He went for those who would be His friends. He did what we could not do for ourselves. Only His atoning sacrifice could have cancelled our guilt. In a small way, we do something like the cross out of the great resource of divine love expressed for us in that cross of Christ. We lay down our lives for one another. This is the fruit that we should be seeking in our lives now. This is what we can ask for with confidence, and we can know that He will give us what we need, so that we will love one another.

We must admit that we do not do this loving of one another very well in this world at this time. This world is not a place characterized by love right now, but an environment where it seems so natural to be filled with hate. We find that we are the objects of the hatred of others who may hate us because they first hate our Master, Jesus Christ. To the extent that our way of living is not the world’s way of living, we may attract the animosity of the world. Even when we too easily fit into the patterns of life all around us, we may be surprised by the trouble that comes to us from others for no good reason.

We are reminded at such times that people hated our Savior without a cause. In some sense, Christ has taken us out of this world. When we try to fit back into it too easily, we may wonder why it does not really seem to work. We look all around us for reasons why we are dissatisfied, but it may be that the first cause of our troubles is that we are trying to fit too neatly into a world system from which we have already been delivered. If we would set our affections on Christ and His Kingdom again, we may feel like we are suddenly closer to home.

We need to stay close to our Master as His faithful servants, even if this means some suffering for us for a little while. Our primary association is with His Name. We have been brought into the family of the Father and the Son. In His Day, Jesus did many great works and spoke very impressive words, but this did not change the fact that He was hated.

We have a divine Helper as we travel through this life. He is the Spirit of truth, and He bears witness about Jesus Christ. The apostolic witness is recorded for us in the pages of the New Testament, through which we have been made aware of the amazing words and works of our Lord. Yet it is because of the work of this Helper that we have come to love the One that the world hates without a cause. It is because of this Helper that we have come to be united in the Vine. It is because of the Holy Spirit that we have been given the blessed privilege of bearing the fruit of divine love for our Lord’s sake in a world that may treat us with unjustified hostility. This is all part of the Father’s plan of pruning for those who are His beloved children. No matter what the cost may be, it is a great blessing to be united in the Vine.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Prayer based on John 21

Father God, Your Son has revealed Himself to us through His Word and Spirit, and also in the breaking of bread together as Your church worships You through our Redeemer. Your Son is full of blessing for us. He continues to serve Your church with unexpected blessings according to Your great plan. We feast together at Your table with joy. You use us as fishers of men according to Your Word. You know our defiling sin, and You restore us again with forgiveness and a call to serve. We do love You. We will feed Your sheep. You know all things, and our lives are in Your hands. If we live, we live for You. If we die, we go to be with You, and our lives are still in Your hands. Teach us to trust You with our own lives and with the lives of everyone around us near and far. We thank You for the testimony of Your apostles regarding our great Savior. We hear the truth recorded for us in the Scriptures, and we rest in Your love.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Prayer based on John 20

Lord God, we marvel at the empty tomb. We consider the placement of the linen cloths lying there, cloths that once covered the dead body of Your Son. We think of the other cloth that once covered a lifeless face, now folded in a place by itself. We believe. Then we consider the familiar voice of Jesus calling His friend by her own name, the voice of a risen Man who walks in the presence of angels. Yes, we believe. He is risen. He is the firstborn of many brethren. As He is, so shall we be. Though we die, there is no point in anyone clinging to our flesh, for our spirits shall ascend on high, and when the Son of Man calls us out from the grave, we shall rise again, not with mortal flesh, but with immortal bodies. We long for Your coming, O Lord! Your Father is our Father. Your God is our God, and we have peace with Him in You. Father God, fill Your church with Your Holy Spirit. As You sent Your Son not to be served, but to serve, send us forward in Your love. Use Your church to declare the forgiveness of sins. Grant us a very secure faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in our resurrection yet to come when He returns. Though we have not yet seen, we do sincerely believe.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Prayer based on John 19

Father God, give us strength for the work of prayer and service that You have appointed for us this day. We don’t want to give up, but we are so weak. Your Son faced such brutal attacks for us, yet without sin. Let His heart and mind be in us now so that we will serve You with integrity and zeal. He is the man above men, yet He took the lowest place in history when He died for our sins. He is the King of kings, but His crown was a crown of thorns, and His royal robe the gift of those who mocked Him. He is the Son of God, but the people of His creation demanded that He be crucified. Father, we know that You govern all things, and that the day of the death of Your Son came by Your express plan and foreknowledge. Will we still resist You in some area of our lives? Your Son is the fulfillment of every hope and expectation of Your Word. Thank You for the gift of Your church. In Your household we find a family that will live forever. The death of Your Son has won for us eternal life. Through the events of His burial we know of the certainty of His death. Though our bodies may one day rest in the grave, we shall be forever alive in Christ.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Prayer based on John 18

Great God, we seek You. In former days we used the Name of Your Son in vain attempts to tear Him down. Forgive us, O Lord. Now we approach You with fear and joy through Him who loved us with an everlasting love. He has forgiven our sins. Even now, though we want to serve You, we speak rash words and do things that are not in accord with Your holy will. Would we even deny You under some awful temptation? Father, we do not want to overestimate our strength. We turn away from all sin. Your son died for us. We ask for Your help immediately, lest we bring some disgrace upon Your Name. We are so easily moved by the people observing us and by our own foolish thinking. Help us to see You only, to love You entirely, and then to love our neighbors as ourselves. Grant that we will be faithful through many attacks and trials. Fill us with the power and love of Christ, who endured the assaults of men for our sake. He is our King. There was no guilt in Him at all. Grant us ears to hear His voice through the Scriptures, that we might believe the truth and bear witness to Him now and forever.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Prayer based on John 17

Father, surely You have heard the entreaties of Your Son when He prayed on earth. You have glorified Jesus. Through Him we have eternal life. Grant that we will keep Your Word day by day. Protect us from the lies of our adversary. Help us to hold fast to the truth by Your grace. Your Son has prayed for us. What a tremendous source of confidence to Your people in times of trouble! Even now He intercedes for us. Thank You for this great gift. Sanctify us in the truth. Protect others who will hear of Jesus Christ through our words. Grant that we will be one in Your Son forever. May the love with which You love Your Son be in us, and may He be in us.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Prayer based on John 16

Lord God, grant to us the strength that we need in order to face the persecution that will come against Your church. Help us to embrace the sorrows of the present age, that we might have the fullness of joy even now, a joy that comes from the assurance of the age of joy that is yet to come. We ask that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. May Your Word be boldly declared to us, and may we have ears to hear the greatness of Your message. Your Son’s days on this earth were brief. He was here for a little while. Then He was gone. Yet His disciples did not have sorrow. No one could take away their joy. Help us to believe in resurrection life in the way that they did. Help us to ask and receive from You. You desire that we should not only seek, but find. Help us to stay firm in the faith through every tribulation, for Your Son has overcome the world.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Prayer based on John 15

O God, we do not want to ever walk away from Jesus. We do not want to resist Your Spirit because of the pain of Your pruning work. We need to abide in the vine. Apart from You we can do nothing. We ask You now for the blessing of much fruit. Enable us to abide in Your love and to keep Your commandments. May our joy be full. Your Son has laid down His life for us, and we are His friends. He has chosen us. He has a plan for godly fruit that will come from our lives. We are not of the world. We have been chosen out of the world. Help us to have courage to do the work that You have for us in the world, though the world may hate us. Grant us a fuller measure of the Spirit of truth, that we may bear witness to Your greatness and Your love.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

John 14

Is there a bigger issue than death for any human being? Death came into the world through sin. To deal with death, one must first deal with sin. As the one with complete mastery over both sin and death, Jesus speaks with full confidence to His disciples as He prepares to take our sins on the cross. He is able to say, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” and we are able to know that this is something more than a self-help positive motivation lecture. Instead of giving in to worry, we are to trust. We trust in God. We can trust in Jesus Christ. He has a plan for us beyond death. He has a place in the current heavens that He refers to as His Father’s house. Is that the whole of heavenly realms, or just some part of it? So many questions… We do know that in God’s house there are many rooms, and that Jesus, now in the present heavens, is preparing a place for us. We don’t know whether He is doing that by Himself, or using the means of men and angels who have gone before us. We do know that when the right time comes for our days here to be over, the Lord will somehow come and take us to be with Him. That is enough for us.

But Jesus says that we know more than this. We know that He is the way to the Father’s house. If we want be there, no other pathway exists. We must come to the Father through the Son. He is not only the way, but He is also the truth and the life. These are three vantage points from which we can gaze at the perfect mediation of the Son of God. He is the only pathway to God’s house. His Word is the perfect truth that we need to hear and believe. Through hearing that Word and traveling along that Way, we will arrive at a place that is the purest and fullest life in the presence of the one who is Life. Jesus is the Key to our life with our heavenly Father.

Even though we know these things, we still face doubts. In this way we are like the disciples. One of them asks to see the Father, perhaps hoping that this will chase away all remaining unbelief. But seeing Jesus is seeing the Father. It must be enough for us to see Him with the eyes of faith, and to trust His Word, and to be used by Him as the church throughout the centuries, proclaiming His Word throughout the world in so many places where the physical feet of our Savior never walked. It is in this sense that the church does greater works than her Master.

Jesus is not only the solution to life beyond the grave; He is also the solution to life prior to the grave. We want to live well now, not merely to live at ease and to have pleasure, but to know that we are serving the Father. This has become our desire. We want to love God. Jesus tells us that we can show our love for God by obeying the commandments of the Son. To assist us in this life of love, God Himself will grant us a Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. This Spirit lives in the one who believes in Jesus Christ. It is in this way that Christ is with us, through the gift of His Spirit. He will not leave us as abandoned orphans, and He will do great works even through us.

The life of communion with God is a life of knowing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is one God, existing eternally in three persons, and these three persons exist in the most perfect communion. To love God is to love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is in the Father, and when we are in Jesus and He is in us by His Spirit, then we do know the Father. When we love the Son, we are loved by the Father. This life of communion with the Triune God is not something that the world knows, but we have been granted this inestimable privilege of knowing God, keeping His word, and experiencing the presence of God in this life and the next. Anyone who does not love Christ and His Word, does not have this kind of life.

This teaching of Jesus is essential for the life of the church. He entrusts it to His disciples, and He assures them that He will bring to their remembrance everything that He has said to them. It is because of this special gift to them that we have been granted the New Testament accounts of Christ. We have a strong assurance that God has brought about a reliable record for us of the life and teachings of our Messiah and King.

This message must be heard and believed. This is the only way that we can have real peace. This is why Jesus can say, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” His love is stable and sure. There is life for us in that place where Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. Any glories of spiritual attainment that the most eminent believers experience in this life come to them from above, from the place that is the source and original of Love, from God Himself. When Jesus goes to the Father, He is not less of a blessing to the church, but more of a blessing if that is possible. We truly do not need to worry. We can safely rejoice in the love of Christ.

Our Lord is able to teach these important truths knowing that He will soon take our hell upon Himself. The one He calls the “ruler of this world,” is surely only operating underneath the sovereign plan of the Almighty Ruler of heaven and earth. That one has no claim on the Son of God. It is the Father that Jesus loves and serves, and not Satan, and it is the justice of the Father which is satisfied for us in the work of the Son. Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus is victorious over the world, the flesh, and the devil. He has conquered sin and death for you.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

John 13

It is not easy for a great king to do some lowly act in the view of others, even if it is just for a moment. He expects others to show their humility before him by their willingness to perform the lowest acts of service. But what if a king were completely committed to some great act of humble service that was far more than a ceremonial show? What if this king would willingly give his life for his people with a full and steady heart? In that case, He would be glad to perform any ceremonial act that might communicate his love for them in advance of that death. It is with the fullness of divine love in His heart, that Christ, knowing that one of them will betray Him, takes the position of the lowest servant of the house, and washes the feet of His disciples.

The disciples did not understand what He was doing, and Peter had the boldness to question the Lord on this, and to say, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” The washing that we need most comes through the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, but this spiritual blessing could never come to us without the blood of Christ. It is the death of Christ that speaks a word for us that alone makes us acceptable to the Father. If we are not united with Jesus in His death, then we can have no share in His life. There was one who would soon be exposed to everyone as the betrayer. He would not be clean. Somehow the cleansing that can only come from above was not for him.

Beyond the story of our purification through the true Passover Lamb, there was another message in this foot-washing ritual leading up to the cross. This way of humble service was a pattern for the church. The King has led us in this way. No one who is His follower should think of lowly service as beneath his dignity. In particular, we should give ourselves away in the service of others within the body of Christ. This is something that we should both know and do.

What must it have felt like for the one who would betray Him to have Jesus wash his feet? What would it have felt like to know that the words of Psalm 41, “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me,” were actually referring to him? We cannot know, but we do know this, that Jesus did know everything that was happening, and He quoted the Psalm as an aid to the faith of His disciples, that when everything happened as He had said it would, they would remember and, as He said, “believe that I-AM.” The way for us is through Christ. We need to receive Him, and in receiving Him to receive the One who sent Him, but there was one there who would not receive Him. Even prior to the actual betrayal of Jesus, around the table of fellowship, Judas was identified as the man who would turn against the Lord.

But what does it actually mean that someone would “receive” Jesus Christ. John speaks of this receiving here and in other places in this gospel as believing in His Name, believing His message, welcoming Him as the person He claims to be, and happily taking possession of all that He gives, including God’s Spirit. It is this last thought that the Lord refers to when He says that, “whoever receives the One I send receives Me.” To receive a superior, is not only to put off all hostility and enmity toward that person, but also to eagerly follow the instructions that the person gives. This is not what Judas did. It is on this occasion that we hear that Satan entered into Judas. We must not think that what happened next was under the ultimate sovereignty of Satan. Remember that the cross was God’s idea, and He receives the glory for it. All the guilt goes to those who with wicked intentions participated in everything connected to the rejection of Jesus and His death. All the Glory goes to God, who ordained this for His great purposes.

This was the day that the Lord had made. Concerning the great injustice of what was about to transpire, and concerning the horror of the sinless Son of God facing the reality of eternal hell, these four words of John well express the ugly truth of this event, “And it was night.” Concerning the electing and saving purposes of God and the great display of both God’s justice and His mercy, this was a glorious and God-glorifying moment.

Jesus was going where no one else could go. No one else could take away our sin, because everyone else already had sin. For the cross to work, the Victim could not have any sin of his own. If a man of sin were to die on the cross, he would only be receiving what he already deserved. But if a sinless Man would die willingly in this way, His sacrifice could atone for others. Only a sinless Man could rise from the dead after such an ordeal. Only a sinless man could enter into heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father, governing all of the events that would necessarily take place for the completion of the Lord’s plan for us. Only Jesus Christ could do all this.

In response to the salvation that He has purchased for us, we must do what He says, and He says that we need to love one another. That love is more than a feeling. As Jesus warned Peter, love is costly. Peter could not go where Jesus went now, but he would follow Him afterward. He could not follow now because the death that He died as our Substitute He had to die alone. Peter and many others would follow afterward because they were called to love God and one another sacrificially, even being willing to give their lives for one another and for the truth that they had come to believe.

Peter could not see this all yet. He thought He was ready to be part of a team of death at that very moment, yet that was not the sovereign will of God. Christ alone would suffer and die for sinners. Before the period of the dawn signified by the rooster crowing, Peter would deny Jesus three times. Nonetheless, He was not the betrayer. He would be kept for a greater purpose than that. He would give His life in service and love for the One who washed his feet, and who cleansed his soul from the stain of sin. Our King went very low for us, and because of His willingness to love that way, we have the privilege of humble service for Him today and the hope of great glory with Him forever in heaven.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

John 12

When Jesus brought back Lazarus of Bethany from the dead, the chief priests and the Pharisees met to consider what could be done about Him. There was something about that miracle that seemed to move these adversaries toward action. But Jesus would not only face murderous opposition from outside His circle of followers, there would also be a betrayer who would come from among those with whom He shared His daily bread. Just six days prior to a Passover that would be forever associated with the death of Christ, Judas Iscariot faced something of a rebuke from the Master concerning the actions of Lazarus’ sister Mary. Mary had testified to her belief in the coming death of Jesus by taking some expensive burial ointment, and pouring this on Jesus’ feet. Judas corrected Mary, and Jesus said something to Judas. “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” The death of Christ at this time was a certain reality, and it was more important to testify to this, even at great cost, then to give money to the poor. The stir over the resurrection of Lazarus was growing, and there was tension inside and outside of the close circle of the followers of the Messiah, so that plans were being made not only to kill Jesus, but to have Lazarus put to death as well.

The crowd that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover was full of expectation, and they, together with Jesus, fulfilled things written about the Messiah from Old Testament passages like Psalm 118 and Zechariah 9. It was not just the crowd that did their part in crying out “Hosanna” or “Save us!” It was not just Jesus who came into town on a young donkey receiving the praise of men. It was that both Jesus and the crowds were doing these things and many others that the Scriptures had long ago predicted would take place. Yet all of this was not leading to the coronation that some surely expected, but to the killing of the Passover Lamb to rescue the people from the cruel bondage of sin and death.

The crowd was not without reliable outside testimony concerning the public Messianic signs that the Messiah had performed. In particular, people were made aware of the recent resurrection of Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb. Not only were Jews interested in Him, but in what might have been an anticipation of the progress of the gospel among God-fearing Greeks in the early decades after the resurrection, there were some Greeks who had come to the Passover who wanted to meet Jesus. The time had now come for something different than meetings like that. It was time for the Messiah to be glorified through His death. It was time for the one Seed of the Kingdom of God to die, so that He might bear much fruit. It was time for Jesus to lead the way for all who would follow, though in His giving of His life on the cross, He would accomplish what no follower could ever have done.

This fact of the atonement was a deeply troubling thing for our Lord to anticipate, yet He knew that it was for this one death that He had come. He knew that the pathway to the fullness of the Father’s salvation for men had to pass through this narrow road where only one man could go. Along that road a voice from heaven was heard, a voice that some thought was thunder, a voice that was not for Jesus but for us, assuring us that the Father had glorified the Name of the Son, and that He would glorify His Name again. The defeat of Satan was at hand. The Seed of the woman would soon crush the head of the serpent, and people from all over the world would be drawn to Him. Both this great victory over the angel of evil, and the subsequent gathering of the people of salvation, would come from the great event of the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross. These two divine projects, requiring such power and wisdom beyond the scope of the strongest empires, would actually be accomplished by an event with the appearance of the most wretched weakness.

The time had come and gone for any further explanation of such mysteries. All of this would soon enough be made clear, but it would only be embraced by those who were being drawn into the church by the Father. That project would have to wait for another feast some weeks away, the Feast of Pentecost. For now, the Light of the world was walking toward the day of darkness for us. What His followers needed to do now was to believe in the light, so that they would become sons of light. But what did all that mean? He had already done so many signs, and yet so many people did not believe in Him. What is so dark within us that we insist on hating the light, and running from the light? Isaiah was given a glimpse of this light so many hundreds of years before, and he was also told that the eyes of men have a spiritual blindness that comes from the judgment of God Himself against us. Do you understand all of that?

Believing in the Messiah is not all about understanding, or believing would just be for those who were the best thinkers; and anyway, even the best of them could never come into the kingdom that way. As it is, all kinds of people are given the gift of faith, and all kinds of people are also left in unbelief. We need to believe Him and receive Him. It is a plain fact that we cannot fully understand Him. What He has brought to us is exactly in accord with the will of the Father, and it means eternal life for all the humble poor children of God who are given ears to hear, and who therefore believe.

The Pharisees were deeply concerned about Him, and they were quite sure that He was wrong about many things. Even one of the twelve, Judas was ready to turn against Him, so he must thought that he knew better for some reason. But Mary gave Him her life, and trusted Him as a child trusts with everything that she could not know. She saw the evidence of her brother’s resurrection, but more than that, she received the Word of her Teacher’s death, and now she lives where He lives.

Monday, May 04, 2009

John 11

Jesus came to bring life. The very best sign of His mission came in His own resurrection to immortality. Prior to that great Sunday morning there were many other signs of what was to come, but surely among the most wonderful of these was the resurrection of His friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus knew that Lazarus was very ill, and he loved this man and his sisters, Mary and Martha, yet He stayed for two days longer in the place where He was rather than come quickly to save Lazarus prior to his death. The reason for this is now clear, that the Lord had determined that this illness would not have the final victory in a sad loss of life, but that it would instead lead to an amazing display of God’s glory. Jesus had determined to glorify Himself through this display of raising His friend back to mortal life.

Lazarus lived in Bethany, a town near Jerusalem in Judea, and Judea was now a dangerous place for Jesus to travel. His disciples were curious about His willingness to go there, but Jesus Himself displayed an awareness of Himself, and a trust that the timing of God in His approaching death would be perfect. He is the light of the world, and He knew why He was going to Bethany, and what He would do there. The disciples did not share this awareness. When Jesus told them that Lazarus had fallen asleep, they assumed that this was a good sign of His eventual recovery. Jesus knew what they did not know. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus was going to Bethany to call him forth from the tomb. At least one of the disciples, Thomas, imagined that Jesus and His little army would fall in battle there as noble soldiers of a good dream, a dream of a Messianic Kingdom that just could not be. How else can we understand His resolve that they should all die with Jesus? It would appear that He was counting on a noble defeat, but His Master was actually walking toward a great display of victory over death.

What they found when they arrived in Bethany was a sight that was far from victorious. Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. His sisters were grieving deeply, especially knowing that if Jesus had been there when Lazarus was sick, our Lord could have healed him. Jesus first spoke with Martha, who said, “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” We cannot suppose that Martha was suggesting an immediate bodily resurrection for Lazarus, since her conversation with the Lord seemed to preclude such an amazing possibility for a man who had already been in the tomb for that length of time. Instead she may have been thinking about the existence of Lazarus beyond death, about their own comfort in the midst of grief, and about all of the normal requests that we might bring to God at a time when we lose someone we love. Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” She naturally assumed that He was comforting her with the hope of the coming resurrection at the end of this age, an important fact that she firmly believed in. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection.” What she did not seem able to fathom at that moment was that the presence of the Christ, the Son of God, the One in whom we must believe in order to live forever, the One who is coming again into the world to bring the great resurrection of humanity, that this presence could actually mean resurrection right then and there for her brother.

Martha returned to Mary and told her that Jesus was calling for her. She went quickly and she said the same hard words that Martha had spoken, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Those who were with them comforting the sisters had the same question in their own minds, the obvious question. “Why were you not here? Why did you let this happen?” His disciples knew that His waiting to come to Bethany was intentional. What were they to think? Jesus clearly loved this man and his sisters. He wept at this loss and at their grief, even knowing the great miracle that He was about to perform.

And then it happened. “Lazarus, come out.” Jesus is the Resurrection! He has the power to speak to a dead body, and to return that body to life. This is a shockingly wonderful display of His glory. It is a display of the coming fact of His own resurrection. It is a display of the truth that the Father hears the Son, a display that caused some to believe in Him. And it was one display too many for some of the Pharisees.

They did not know what to do. As the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together to make a determination, there was one man who knew what had to be done. He said something very true, “Do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” What he meant by this was that the danger of Jesus to the political stability of the Jewish nation was substantial, and that it was better for Jesus to be put to death rather than to face the might of Rome coming against them and their Messiah. God meant something different by this special pronouncement, that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. Elect Jews and Gentiles, the true Israel of God, would live, because Jesus would die for them. They were concerned about Roman armies coming against this vassal state of the empire. Jesus was thinking about the wrath of God coming against the elect because of our sin. The result was the same, both Jesus and His enemies knew what had to be done. He had to die. The angry group of leaders was operating out of envy, fear, and hatred. The true King of the Jews was operating out of the fullness of divine holiness and love.

Through it all, the One who declared Himself to be the Resurrection was in charge. Finally now the time was at hand, for the Passover was coming. The great miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead would set in motion the events that would bring about the most amazing death in all the sorry history of decay upon this planet. One Man would die for the nation, and the nation of God’s people throughout the world would live forever.