Month: August 2019

For you granted him authority over all people…

What does it mean to have authority? Does it mean that nobody ever talks back to you? Does it mean that everyone always does what you tell them? Does having authority give you total control.

Well … no. Actually, it doesn’t. At least not all the time.

If you go before a judge and the judge tells you to be quiet but you keep mouthing off… you might end up in jail. But you still got to say what you wanted to say. So while the judge has the authority to toss you in the slammer, you still can say what you want if you don’t mind a little jail time.

So it is with Jesus. Jesus is the judge. (John 5: 27) God has given him authority over all people. Yet people still retain the right to raise their fist and their voice against God while they are here on earth. It is when they are called to judgment before God’s throne that we will find out how the man with all of the authority deals with them.

Food for Thought: Everyone has some measure of authority. It may be small or it may be large, but we all have some. What do you learn from Jesus about exercising authority?

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Continue reading “Jail Time – John 17: 2a”

Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

As Jesus continues the introduction to his prayer, he begins by referring to “the hour.” We discussed this in the post titled “H-Hour.” He then goes on to ask that God will glorify him so that he, in turn, may glorify the Father.

Strong’s Concordance defines the Greek word dox-ad’-zo as follows:

“to render (or esteem) glorious (in a wide application):—(make) glorify(-ious), full of (have) glory, honour, magnify”

The word, “glory” is a difficult word to define in English. Like so many words it tends to be used casually or in ways that do not help us understand what Jesus is saying. Returning to Strong’s we can get a sense of the original meaning with the words “magnify” and “honor.” For me, the concept of increasing one’s honor helps me understand what Jesus is saying.

If God will increase or magnify the honor believers have for Jesus, he, in turn, will be able to magnify or increase the honor believers have for God.

This is an important point. The Israelites constantly fell short when it came to honoring God. Throughout their history God is faithful, and they are not. They turn to false Gods over and over again. Even in the days of Jesus, with the Israelites existing under Roman rule, they were more concerned about human laws than they were with God’s law.

After Jesus endured crucifixion to redeem us from sin, his honor, his glory, were magnified again and again in the eyes of those who believe. Because of this, we who believe in Jesus honor God with our lives, our words, and our very thoughts.

Food for Thought: How can you and I magnify how we honor and bring glory to God?

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Continue reading “Magnify – John 17: 1b”

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed…

The prayer Jesus prays in Chapter 17 is sometimes called “The Lord’s Prayer” (not to be confused with the prayer he taught his disciples to pray) or also “The High Priestly Prayer.” Jesus prays in front of his disciples. He prays to his Father in heaven.

Today we begin with the first part of the first verse of this prayer. Jesus “looked toward heaven” when he prayed. This catches my eye because as a child I was taught to bow my head when I prayed.

Bowing is what one does in front of royalty. Certainly, this is appropriate as we come before the God of all creation to praise him or ask for something. But Jesus has told us that we are in a different relationship with God now. In John 14: 20 we read:

”On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

In Jesus, we are allowed to be in a very close relationship to the Father. Perhaps we, too, are worthy of looking toward heaven when we pray.

Food for thought: What do you suppose Jesus was seeing when he looked toward heaven? Clouds or something else?

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Continue reading “Looking Up – John 17: 1a”

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

What does the world tell us about trouble? It seems to me that the answer the world gives always has to do with the word, “more.” More money. There’s an answer. If I had more money, I would … What? You would do what? Would you buy your way out of trouble, or would trouble find you because you have money?

The world’s idea of security and peace is elusive. The goal post keeps moving even as you get closer to it. Whether it is more money, better friends or spouse, or a new diet or exercise regime, more is always what is needed but is never enough.

Jesus, on the other hand, has overcome the world. He did that in part by rejecting Satan’s offers of physical satisfaction, power and authority, and pride. (Luke 4: 1-13) The finality of his victory was in letting the world kill him only to discover that Jesus is life itself.

“Take heart!” Jesus says. That is a choice we make when we choose to believe what Jesus says. If we don’t believe, we lose hope. If we do, we take heart.

Food for thought: How does life change when one chooses to “take heart”?

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Continue reading “Take Heart – John 16: 33b”

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus is more concerned about his disciples than he is about himself? Who among us, knowing what Jesus knows about his future, would be concerned about those closest to us rather than our selves?

Imagine that you have been unjustly accused, tried and convicted, and the punishment is death. Not just any death though, a nasty, painful death. What do you do? Do you think about the concerns and feelings of others? Or, do you rail against your fate to anyone who will listen? It puts Jesus’ words and deeds into perspective, doesn’t it?

And then there is the reason he told the disciples the things that he did. He wanted them to have peace. Isn’t that amazing? While Jesus goes to his death, untimely by the world’s standards, he wants to make sure that his disciples, his friends, are at peace.

Continue reading “More Peace – John 16: 33”

A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

In John 15: 14-15 Jesus calls his disciples ‘friends,’ because they have been with him and heard everything that the Father had told Jesus to say. Yet in this verse, Jesus says, “You will leave me all alone.” What kind of friend does that?

Being a friend is a remarkable thing. I think at the heart of friendship is a kind of love. To be a friend you have to like the person. That doesn’t mean you have to be liked by the person you want to befriend. Sometimes that comes later.

Jesus picked his disciples for reasons only God knows, but at the heart of those reasons is love. The disciples love Jesus, too, but in a different way. It is not yet the kind of love that Jesus talks about in John 15: 13 where he says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That will come later.

Food for thought: How does it feel to be left alone by someone you thought was a friend? How does that feeling help you understand what Jesus did for us by going to the cross?

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Continue reading “Friends – John 16: 32”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.

Do you keep a diary? I do. It’s not much but in it I record the highlights of the day. It is amazing how quickly I can forget what I did yesterday. If I need to know something the daily diary is a great prompt to help me remember what was going on.

As we read through John’s gospel we have the advantage of seeing what amount to his notes of what happened each day. We see the disciples convinced that Jesus is God in John 6:69. They have certainly heard Jesus talk about this more than once. So it might seem a surprise to hear the disciples say, “Now we can see…” Why didn’t they remember that they had seen that Jesus is God before?

The reason Jesus didn’t pick an engineer to be a disciple is that he didn’t want anyone dragging pencils and notepads around writing down notes all of the time. He wanted his disciples fully engaged with him all of the time. Later there would be time for writing down memories assisted by the Holy Spirit. So if the disciples find themselves going over the same ground that they have gone over before, we can understand. After all, they are only human.

Food for thought: If you had been a disciple in Jesus’ day would you have wanted to take notes of everything he said or would you be content to just hang out with the most amazing man in the universe?

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Continue reading “Diary – John 16: 29-31a”

| came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that several posts are talking about the fact that Jesus isn’t from around here. He does things that no other human being has ever done or will ever do, and he talks like he is from another place, too. Now we know where.

“I came from the Father…” is a simple statement, yet packed with interesting topics. Where is the Father? Who is the Father? Why does he call him “the Father” instead of my Father?

I remember Jesus trying to explain to Nicodemus that the Son of Man is the only one to have come from Heaven. Then Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that “God is spirit….” (John 4: 24)

Jesus came from being what he calls “spirit,” and became what we know as “flesh.” Now he is telling the disciples that he is going back to the place of spirit again. In essence, he is all packed and ready to go.

Food for thought: Which do you suppose seemed more real to Jesus; being in the spirit form or being in the flesh?

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Continue reading “All Packed- John 16: 28”

In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

Which day is “that day”?

“That day” is the day when those who believe in Jesus rejoice with a joy that no one can take away. It is a day that happens after Jesus was crucified. It is a day when Jesus can send us the Advocate. It is a day when we can ask the Father for whatever we want directly. We do not have to ask Jesus, although we need to ask in his name. We have a direct connection with God.

What does this mean?

In Jesus’ day, the temple worship was still in place. The priests were still officially the representatives of God before the people. To ask God for anything meant asking through a priest. People didn’t just casually talk with God.

Why is this possible?

Jesus. Really, that is the whole answer; Jesus. God becomes a man called Jesus. Jesus speaks God’s word and will to the people. The people kill Jesus. Jesus rises from the dead, the perfect sacrifice. So in love with his creation that he suffered death on the cross to be able to redeem those who will believe in him.

Food for thought: If you were to ask God for something, what would it be?

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Continue reading “Direct Connect – John 16: 26 – 27”

Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

It must have been frustrating to be a disciple. Jesus spoke “figuratively” a lot. Trying to decode what he meant is challenging enough today. And we have the written record of Jesus’ life and words. As a disciple, all of this figurative stuff was being thrown at them real-time. Who could blame them if when Jesus said he was going to speak plainly they thought, “It’s about time!”

Has that time come when Jesus speaks plainly about his Father?

I would like to suggest that it has. Over the past few days, we have learned about the connection between the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We know that when we hear the Spirit speak, we are hearing Jesus’ words. We know that Jesus speaks only what the Father wants him to speak and that he glorifies the Father. As a believer who has received the Holy Spirit, we are in direct connection with the best possible source of information about the Father; Jesus.

Food for thought: What better way is there to learn about God than through a direct connection with His Spirit?

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Continue reading “It’s About Time! – John 16: 25”