"Sir, we would like to see Jesus" ... Jesus Replied (4)

John 12

23 ... “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

In our last blog we considered Jesus power in weakness and wisdom in folly. Here we apply that to ourselves and the church.

Reigning in Glory - but veiled

If in His own death Jesus defeated the unholy trinity of sin, evil and death, what now? Now that He is risen and clothed with immortality? What now that He reigns in power and glory?  There is no stopping King Jesus now. Nothing can stand in His way. 

But not only that, in his death he demonstrated the perfect Justice of God, he took all the punishment for sin, he drank every last drop from the bowl of God’s fury.

Perhaps, most important to us personally, as individuals, in His death he demonstrated His love for us. As my old Pastor from years ago once said, “Some say it with chocolates, some say it with flowers, but Jesus said it with nails in His hands!” 

But we must not forget, it was not just for us as individuals that he died and rose again, but it was for His precious Church.

Ephesians 5

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

As we press on into 2017, we, both as individuals, but also together as the Church, have many, many great challenges. But as we fix our eyes on Jesus, crucified, and behold His limitless glory, we will constantly see His jaw-dropping, breath-taking, confounding love for us. Love that overcomes fear and doubt. Love that wins our trust and stirs our affection. We can be absolutely certain of His love for His Church - and that includes New Life! We will see His matchless power in weakness, but know, now He reigns in glory! We will see His justice as we look on at this wicked world. We will see His wisdom - wisdom that He promises to give to us … 

James 1

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

The more we focus on Him, the more confident we will be.

With all the work that needs to be done - it would be easy to lose our focus. The moment we take our eyes from Him, we begin to rely on our self, on other people, on money and on all manner of splintered staffs. Then we will lose energy, motivation, fire, passion, and joy. Our love for Him and one another will grow cold and our love for every other unworthy contender will increase - dishonouring the one who is worthy. 

Brothers and sisters, we must fix our eyes on Christ Crucified. Wise people know that in life, we must choose our battles carefully. There are some battles that should take priority over others. We cannot win all battles, we don't even have to fight them all - that is foolish. So let's choose battles carefully. In choosing our battles, let us be clear, the battle to keep our eyes fixed on Christ Crucified, of all battles, is the one we must never give up on - and we can be sure, in that battle, we have the might of heaven to help us.

1 Corinthians 2

2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Sir, we would like to see Jesus" ... Jesus Replied ... (3)

23 ... “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Perhaps click this link and get this song going in the background as you read ...  

https://youtu.be/TqCMTkSqv4I

Gospel Rediscovered (Part 3)

As we continue considering the second point of our New Years Message, we think today of the power of God in Jesus in His weakness. We think of the wisdom of God in what appears to be great foolishness.

In Weakness and folly ... 

So we considered yesterday that Jesus was handed over to Satan and all evil without restriction.  He was stripped naked, mocked, spat upon, a crown of thorns rammed upon his head, he was beaten, flogged and nailed to the cross which was lifted p and dropped in its stand, thereby dislocating his bones. Then began the slow, tortrous death, until he breathed his last. Even then they were not finished - a spear driven up under his rib cage. Jesus was dead! How weak is that?

Then, when He was as weak as could be, (for when are we weaker than in death?) it was then, that all the power of the evil one was broken. It was then that sin was rendered powerless. It was then that death itself was defeated. 

Satan doubtless thought he hit the jackpot when God the Father handed Jesus over to him with no restrictions at all. “Very well Satan, take Him, my precious Son, and do your worst”.  Satan must have thought, "at last, God is having a senior moment! A moment of weakness and folly".

Satan must have rubbed His hands in glee as he watched Jesus utterly humiliated and ultimately tortured to death in the most shameful way possible.  But three days later when the earth quaked and the stone rolled away - Satan realized - his worst was no match for Jesus weakest! In that moment He knew he had nothing! He was utterly defeated by God’s great wisdom!

Such is the greatness of God! In weakness - he is strong beyond imagination!  In foolishness, He is wise beyond comprehension.

Having accomplished everything in His utter weakness, He burst forth from the grave in power! He ascended to rule and reign.

He is our King, He is the one in whom we trust right? Often we lose faith and trust in this and that - hoping other things will meet our need - whatever that may be. How foolish we are. In His death he has proven His great love for us. In His resurrection victory He has proven, absolutely nothing is impossible with Him.

If in His weakness and foolishness He could accomplish so much, how foolish and irrational of us to trust in other things.

But often we are confused because we feel abandoned. We feel God is not doing anything! We perhaps think perhaps we need to try harder to win His favour, that we need to be holier etc, or that, in spite of all our talk of faith, really we are on our own - it is up to us.

I wonder if this state of affairs is because of one simple, fundamental mistake we easily make. Now that we are believers, loved by Jesus, forgiven, we think it means Jesus should be on our side. 

Brothers and sisters, this is not so. He is not on our side, it is us who are to be on His side!

Let's pray, not that He help us do our will, but that He help us do His will.

Jesus be the center

Be my source be my light Jesus

Jesus be the center

Be my song Jesus

Be the fire in my heart

Be the wind in my sails

Be the reason that I live

Jesus Jesus

Jesus be my vision

Be my help

Be my guide Jesus 

"Sir, we would like to see Jesus." ... Jesus replied .... (2)

23 ... 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

It is what Jesus did on the cross that sets Jesus apart.

Gospel Rediscovered (Part 2) 

Everything else Jesus did - others have done … 

As Jesus raided the dead, so did others, Elijah, Elisha the Apostle Peter and Paul to name four. 

As Jesus multiplied bread in feeding the five thousand, so, Elijah multiplied the oil and flour for the widow at Zarephath.

As Jesus exercised power of the elements, so Moses parted the waters and Elijah prayed for rain and it rained. And so we could go on.

There are many great men and women through history, but however great they all are, they all had feet of clay, and in the end, all sinned and were defeated by the great enemy - death. The greatest of all God’s warriors, Samson, David and all his fighting men, Gideon - were all, to a man, sinners defeated by death.

Jesus is greater than Moses, Elijah, David or anyone else that can be named.

In His life and death, Jesus accomplished (for me and for you and for all believe, for all the church and for New Life Church), what no-one else could ever accomplish. He has done for us that which no-one else could or would.

Jesus was willingly Handed Over to Satan, Evil and Darkness

He did not retaliate when they spat upon him, punched Him, stripped Him naked, rammed a crown of thorns on His brow, whipped Him so that His naked body was completely lacerated, he never lifted a muscle when they spread Him naked, bleeding, humiliated upon the cross and drove the nails through, when they lifted the cross and dropped it in its stand so that all His bones dislocated.

At His arrest, He made it clear that He was voluntarily laying down His life.

Matthew 26

53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 

At any time Jesus could have vanquished all His foes with a great army of celestial angels. Jesus gave up His life willingly - he was never defeated. 

John 10

17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

God the Father handed Jesus over to Satan on a plate - and Jesus willingly submitted to the Father's will. This was the hour when darkness had its way … 

Luke 22

53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

Remember Job? (excuse the paraphrase) Satan said, “let me at him”. God said, “very well, you can touch all he has and loves - but you must not touch him.” After doing his worst, Satan told God that Job would deny God if Satan is allowed to touch Job’s flesh. Again God gave Job over to Satan, but with the restriction, that Satan cannot take Job’s life. Thus far Satan was granted - no further dare he step.

But Jesus was handed over to darkness without restrictions …. 

“This is your hour, when darkness reigns!”

Jesus knew it was the will of His father to be given over to Satan and darkness. And so, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter!

Philippians 2:8

“He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

It is hard for us to imagine the faith required by Jesus to go through with the cross. To allow Himself to be given over to evil, darkness and Satan. To the apostles, everything had gone wrong. It seemed utterly hopeless. But we are talking about Jesus! The kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and be buried in order to produce many seeds.

Let us meditate on the wonder of the cross. That Jesus gave Himself up to Satan! Let Him do His worst - no restrictions at all. And let us praise God, that He will never hand us over to Satan without restriction! Only Jesus - in our place.

"Sir, we would like to see Jesus" ... Jesus replied ... (1)

John 12

23 ... “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

In our last blog we considered the great request of the Greeks. Below we consider the even greater Reply of Jesus! Let's consider the second point from our New Years message ... 

Gospel Rediscoverd (Part 1)

It is not enough to just see Jesus in His earthly ministry. Jesus could never be fully known in the casting out of demons, healing the sick, stilling the storms, flattening the seas, feeding the thousands, even raising the dead, defeating his foes as they tried to outwit Him. None of that could reveal the infinite glory of the eternal God in Jesus. His glory was and is far greater, far brighter, far more wonderful than is earthly ministry, as awesome as it was, could ever disply.

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The time for His eternal glory to be revealed for all to see had come. And when gazing at the glory, what would we see? Something like a kernel of wheat, falling to the ground and dying, and in its death producing many seeds. Jesus spoke of His death.

If we really want to see Jesus, we must see Him in His death.

This is why Jesus commanded us to break bread, in memory of Him in His death on the cross! Communion is Jesus provision to bring us back, again and again and again, to behold, Christ crucified. We can never see Christ crucified too much - only not enough!

Two simple applications for us to draw from this ... 

1) Pray ... 

Let us ask God to reveal Christ crucified to us in deeper life transforming ways.

As the hymn goes ... 

For us He was made sin

O help me take it in

This is a good prayer, if I could humbly adjust just one word, the 'me' to 'us'. Again. let's be praying this for us as a Church. Let's be praying for one another.

2) Make the most of every opportunity
When we come to communion, let's make the most of the opportunity. Let's be thankful that the Lord has called us in this way to keep coming back to Christ Crucified. And let's take joy in the knowledge that as we do share together - He is present and takes joy in our faith filled obedience.

Keeping our Eyes on the Christ Crucified

Brothers and Sisters

Today I want to remind you again of our first point from the New Years Message, a ...

                                   Gospel Request

The Greeks came to Jesus with what is arguably the wisest, greatest of all requests … 

John 12:21

“we would like to see Jesus.”

To see Jesus - that is really all of our need. 

Consider these questions and the testimony of the church through the ages song ...

Are you facing temptation?

I need The every hour

Stay thou nearby

Temptations lose their power

When Thou art nigh

Do you struggle to worship?

‘When I see Thee as Thou art 

I’ll praise Thee as I ought

Are you in a spiritual battle?

We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender

We go not fourth, alone against the foe

Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender

We rest on Thee and in Thy name we go.

We rest on thee, our shield and our defender

Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise

When passing through, the gates of pearly splendour

Victors we rest, with Thee through endless days.

Are you in need, emotionally, materially, spiritually or in any other way?

Fear not that thy need shall exhaust His provision

Our God ever yearns His resources to share

Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing

The Father, both thee and thy load will upbear

Much more can be said to speak of the all-sufficiency of Jesus. The Beetles were not far off the mark when they sang, “All you need is love”. Better though, All you need is Jesus - for in Him are all the riches of wisdom and grace!” 

That really is no exaggeration. In Christ are all things, grace, justice, wisdom. power, strength, the church … 

Whatever our need, there is nothing more powerful or transforming than to see Jesus Himself.

Consider his great verse from 1 John 3:2

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

To just see Him as He is, is all that is needed for our final, full and complete transformation. When we see Him as He is - we will never be the same again, we will be utterly changed.

But … 

1 Corinthians 13

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror darkly; then we shall see face to face.

Right now we all struggle to see Him - but we do see Him - admittedly dimly - as in the faint reflection of a Roman mirror - not clear like ours. But we can see, we do see something of Him - and He reveals all we need for now.

This is why the writer to the Hebrews exhorts us … 

Hebrews 12:2

2 Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus … ,

King David knew a good thing when He saw it …

Psalm 27

4 

One thing I ask from the Lord,

    this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

    and to seek him in his temple.

We would like to see Jesus - A-men!

John 12:21 “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 

Today we will consider the first point of our New Years Message, 'a ...

Gospel Request

Seeing and Savouring Jesus!

To my church family,

The Story of Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell is a world-class, brilliant concert violinist. He fills great auditoriums with cultured and very wealthy people. You pay big bucks to see and hear him perform.

One day he picked up his $4,000,000 violin, changed his general appearance, unshaved etc, and played on the Metro DC train station - like a common basker. As this brilliant violinist played people hurried by, most not even making eye contact, a few stopped and listened for a few moments, some tossed 50 cents or $1 into his hat - most just rushed by. Only one lady recognised him and stopped to savour the glorious experience.

He played a full and magnificent concert - but the people had no idea they were in the presence of greatness, recipients of grace - they didn’t even acknowledge him! They failed completely, to take in and enjoy the wonder.

Here is a link to the episode on youtube.  https://youtu.be/UM21gPmkDpI 

It is worth clicking the 'Show More' link below the video as it tells the full story of how he played for 45 minutes and collected $32 from about 11000 passers by.

If you want to know how good he is - check this out: https://youtu.be/1h88cW8Kuzl

So what?

We are like those people. We are in the presence of Jesus. He is ‘playing for us!’ Pouring out His extraordinary gift of grace, a gift no money could buy, serving it to us freely, moment by moment and day by day. He really wants us to see Him, to savour Him, to hear Him, to be awed by Him, to have our affections stirred by and set upon Him. 

That is why this request of the Greeks is arguably the greatest, wisest, most worthy request any of us can make … to see Jesus! …

Solomon asked for wisdom - we ask for Christ who is the wisdom of God!

This request corresponds directly to the greatest of all our needs. It is your great need today - it is my great need today. To See and Savour Jesus!

If we do not feel the need to see Him, (as is the case with me virtually all the time!) if the desire to see Jesus is faint and our passion to see Jesus is cold, that is all evidence of our spiritual lethargy, complacency, and the deadness of our soul. If we fail to recognise His presence today - it is not that He is not present, or is not pouring out grace, it is that we need revival of soul - we need to see Jesus, to catch a glimpse of Him!

This year, let us all, together, determine to behold Jesus like we have never beheld Him. That He might fill our gaze. Let’s pray this not only for ourselves, but for one another too. Let’s ask God for stories to tell to each other of how our eyes have been opened afresh, stories that will encourage one another, and let’s ask the Lord to give stories to others in the church to share with us for our encouragement. Lets pray that we see Him in some wonderful way today!

Be Thou My Vision O Lord of my Heart

Be all else but naught to me save that Thou art

Be Thou my best thought in the day and the night

Both waking or sleeping

Thy presence my light.

Acts 2:42 - An analysis of the word 'Devoted'.

Acts 2:42-47 is an awesome picture of the early church. It is telling of the dynamic nature, enthusiasm, energy and zeal of the first disciples of the church.

Key to this picture is verse 42. Verse 42 is the engine behind verses 43-47. It can be argued that the word ‘devotion’ is the key dynamic that produces the engines power.

So, what does the word ‘devoted’ literally mean? The answer is really quite simple, it simply means ‘devoted’.  It is a word loaded with passion, enthusiasm, energy, loyalty, priority, affection.

The Greek word behind the word ‘Devotion’ in Acts 2:42 is Proskarterio

Th word Proskarterio is translated in various ways in the New Testament. By looking at the different ways it is translated in different contexts we get a sense of the flavour of what is being described.

Below are all the instances where the word Proskarterio

 is used n the Greek. Wherever you see the pink text, behind that word or combination of words is the word Proskarterio. There are nine instances in all.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Romans 12

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Romans 13

6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

ESV: attend to this very thing

NASB: Devoting themselves to this very thing

Mark 3

9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him.

Acts 1

14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 6

3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

NASB / ESV: We will Devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word

Acts 8

13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

NASB:  he continued on with Philip

ESV:  he continued with Philip

Acts 10

7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants.

Colossians 4

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.