Category Archives: John

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Constant Companionship

Reflect:
John 14:26

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

According to pollster George Barna, a recent survey indicated that 61% of protestant Christians in America hold the view that the Holy Spirit is NOT a person or living entity, but only a symbol of God’s presence.

Of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit—the third Person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, is more misunderstood than the Father and the Son. That is why there is so much ignorance and fear and neglect on the one hand, and abuse on the other.

So to better understand and fully appreciate Jesus’ promise of the Divine Advocate to come alongside you to help, comfort, teach and guide you in your spiritual journey, let’s start with this essential truth: The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal, symbolic “it”!

Jesus said as much in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever…” The background for that statement was the Lord’s devastating announcement that he was going away and would leave his disciples’ physical presence. And they were understandably alarmed. But Jesus told them not to be alarmed.

Why would they not need to be afraid? Because another Comforter would be coming. The Greek word for comforter is parakleton. In John 14:26, the same Greek word translated “advocate” is used. Likewise, and interestingly, in I John 2:1 (NASB) that word, parakleton is used of Jesus:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

The word means “one called along-side” for protection or counsel. Jesus is one who stands alongside you!

Now Jesus promised his disciples, and by extension, you and me, that the Holy Spirit would take his place in our lives as that parakleton to not only be alongside us, as Jesus was, but to be “in us” continually as our protector, counselor, guide and comfort. Jesus said the Father would give us “another paraketon”. The word “another” means another of the same kind rather than another of a different kind. Jesus was one advocate—and what an advocate he was. The Holy Spirit was another advocate, another of the same kind—and what an advocate he is.

God the Father wants you to have an intimate, vital, day-to-day companionship with the Holy Spirit. That is his gift and his promise to you. John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptize you with the promised Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:11) Jesus affirmed that prophetic promise throughout his teaching. He promised that the Holy Spirit would not only be with you but in you as the Father’s gift. (John 14:17)

Are you enjoying that kind of constant companionship with God the Holy Spirit? If not, the promised gift is still on the table!

“Some souls think that the Holy Spirit is very far away, far, far, up above. Actually he is, we might say, the divine Person who is most closely present to the creature. He accompanies him everywhere. He penetrates him with himself. He calls him, he protects him. He makes of him his living temple. He defends him. He helps him. He guards him from all his enemies. He is closer to him than his own soul. All the good a soul accomplishes, it carries out under his inspiration, in his light, by his grace and his help.” ~Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

Reflect and Apply: How do you enter into a constant companionship with the Holy Spirit? Simply ask! Jesus said in Luke 11:13 (Message), “If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”

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God-Focused Worship

Reflect:
John 4:23-24

“The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The Samaritan woman Jesus encountered at the well of Sychar was suffering from what I call “designer deity syndrome”. This was a fairly common syndrome among worshipers not only in Jesus’ day, but it is in ours as well. It occurs when we attempt to come to God on our terms rather than his; when we make worship more about us, and what we like, than about God, and what he likes; when, in effect, we recreate God in our image rather than approaching him as beings created in his image.

That was the problem with the worship of the Samaritans. They had corrupted worship to fit their own needs to the point Jesus said, “You don’t even know what you’re worshipping.” (John 4:22) They had become Burger King worshipers. Do you remember the old Burger King advertisement? “Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us. Have it your way.” That little jingle is fitting for what we modern day “Samaritans” are doing with our experience of worship.

We love a customized church experience. We expect worship services to be tailor-made just for us. We expect the praise, programs and preaching to satisfy our preferences. We want church designed to meet our needs, music tuned to our exact tastes, preachers crafted to our specifications, messages that mesmerize, and a made to order God—a “Burger King God” who says, “Have it your way”.

Some time ago, Los Angeles Magazine ran an article called “God For Sale”. The author said, “It is no surprise that when today’s affluent young professionals return to church they want to do it only on their own terms. But what is amazing is how far the churches are going to oblige them.” Newsweek Magazine added, “They’ve developed a pick and choose Christianity in which individuals take what they want and pass over what does not fit their spiritual goals…”

That is what I would call “designer god syndrome”.

Nothing can be further from the “spirit and truth” worshiper of John 4:24 that Jesus said God the Father is seeking. When it comes to God, and the way you worship him, why don’t you say to him, “Have it your way!” That is God-focused worship—which by definition, is the only way to worship.

If you will learn what it means to do that, you will drink water from an altogether different kind of well–-and as Jesus promised, you will never thirst again!

“Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped” ~Jack Hayford

Reflect & Apply: If you have been guilty of engaging in “Designer Deity Worship”, perhaps this would be an appropriate prayer to offer right now: “Father, free me from designer deity syndrome. Forgive me for making worship more about me than about what pleases you. Teach me to truly worship you in Spirit and in Truth.”

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The Power Of One

Reflect:
John 1:1-51

“One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ And he brought him to Jesus.” ~John 1:40-42

The disciple Andrew inspires us with a crystal clear, very simple, non-threatening, doable example of how we can be active in reaching lost people. When you read the few passages in the New Testament about Andrew, like this one in John 1, there are a couple of really encouraging things that stand out:

First, Andrew shows that you don’t have to have any special skills to introduce people to Christ. Andrew just simply brought people to Jesus.

In reality, even though he was the first disciple Jesus enlisted, and even though he was the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Andrew never achieved the fame that his brother Peter did. Jesus never included Andrew in his inner circle, like Peter. Andrew wasn’t there at the Transfiguration, like Peter. Andrew wasn’t there when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gesthemane, like Peter. Andrew never preached like Peter, never wrote a gospel like John, was never recognized by the early church as a leader like James.

Peter’s name appears close to 200 times in the New Testament, ninety-six times in the four gospels—only Jesus is mentioned more often. We find Andrew in only eleven different places, ten of them in the Gospels—mostly grouped together with the other disciples; five as “Peter’s brother.” Only three times do these passages tell us any details about Andrew—and even that is minimal.

Someone once asked a conductor what the most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra was. He said, “second fiddle”. That was Andrew! Yet beneath everybody’s radar, Andrew was being used in the most powerful way of all—to bring people to Christ.

Andrew not only brought Peter to Jesus, but in John 6:8, we find it was Andrew who brought the boy with the loaves and fish to Jesus, and then one of the outstanding miracles of the Bible took place: The feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. On account of Andrew, we have a story preserved that has helped millions to understand that Jesus is the true and only Bread of Life.

Then in John 12:20, some Greeks came to Philip and said, “we want to see Jesus.” Philip took them to Andrew, and what did Andrew do? He hooked them up with Jesus. Andrew became both the first home missionary—when he led Peter to Christ, and the first foreign missionary—when he led these Gentiles to Jesus.

In Andrew you don’t see any special skills or an incredibly charismatic personality, or an extremely articulate speaker. You just see a guy who was faithful, available, and useful. He just kept bringing everybody who got near him to Jesus.

Tradition tells us that Andrew kept on introducing people to Jesus for the rest of his life. He was finally put to death at a ripe old age in Greece. His death came after he befriended Maximilla, the wife of the Roman proconsul Aegeas, and led her to faith in Christ. Aegeas became so enraged over this that he ordered Andrew to offer sacrifices to a heathen god. When Andrew refused, he was severely beaten, tied to a cross, and crucified. That cross, shaped like an X is today called St. Andrew’s cross.

It is said that he lingered for two whole days before dying, but the whole painful time, he preached the Gospel to everyone who came by. Andrew never stopped introducing people to Jesus, even to his last breath.

And the second thing we can learn from Andrew is the power of one. Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, and Jesus transformed him into Peter, a rock—and you know the rest of the story.

We really don’t understand the power of one life simply being available, faithful and useful to God, and letting God do the rest!

Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher. He won a young man to the Lord when he was a Boston shoe salesman. That man became the well-known evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

After evangelizing in America, D. L. Moody traveled to England. There Frederick B. Meyer heard his message. F. B. Meyer was so affected by the impact Moody’s preaching was having on people that it began to inspire his own ministry. Meyer was invited to come to America, where he preached at Furman University. A student in the audience had decided to quit the ministry and go back to a secular job, but Meyer’s message was given with such fervor that the young man walked to the altar and renewed his vow to preach the gospel. He became the well known evangelist R. G. Lee. Another young man, J. Wilbur Chapman, was inspired by Meyer’s preaching, and Chapman went on to have an amazing impact as well. Chapman came along side Billy Sunday, a recent convert, and mentored him.

Billy Sunday became an evangelist, holding a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sunday so inspired a group of businessmen that they organized a committee to invite other preachers back to evangelize their city. One of those invited was Mordecai Ham. In one of the meetings Ham preached, a young man by the name of Billy gave his heart to Christ. Billy Graham’s ministry is known throughout the world and his crusades have influenced hundreds of thousands if not millions.

All this happened because of one Edward Kimball. One nobody won one other nobody, and that started a series of dominoes falling that ended up with millions acknowledging Jesus as Savior. That’s the power of one.

That’s Andrew. Every time Andrew is mentioned, he’s bringing someone to Jesus—then Jesus does the rest, and lives get transformed. His single talent seems to have been leveraging his relationships to introduce seekers to Christ. He doesn’t lay the “Four Spiritual Laws” on them; he doesn’t whip out a “Roman Road” tract on them. He just says, “hey, come with me, I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”

That’s the Andrew Factor—which, if you haven’t picked up on it by now, is simply inviting your friends to church and letting God do the rest.

Did you know that 80% of people who come to Christ do so through an established friendship. 10% of the people you bring to church for the first time are likely to become regular attenders. Get people to come twice, 25% become attenders. Bring them a third time, 45% will become a part of the church. Most people don’t join a church because of the great music, the outstanding programs, or the sensational preaching. They will come, and get transformed, because of you!

That’s the power of one! That’s the power of you!

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith.” ~Paul, Philemon 1:6

Reflect and Apply: Ask the Lord to help you to cut through all of the things that distract you from the most important thing you should be doing with your life: Bringing people to Christ.

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Resurrection Monday

Reflect:
John 11:25-26

“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’”

The story is told of Martin Luther, who once spent three days in a deep depression over something that had gone wrong. On the third day his wife, Katie, came downstairs dressed in mourning clothes. Luther asked, “Who’s dead?”

She replied, “God!”

Luther was offended, “What do you mean, God is dead? God cannot die.”

Kate replied, “Well, the way you’ve been acting I was sure He had!”

That was a wake-up call to the great reformer. Luther snapped out of his funk. And Jesus’ claim to being the resurrection and the life ought to snap us out of our funk, too. Jesus is alive, and because he lives, we will live—forever. This business of resurrection isn’t just for Easter Sunday, it is for Easter Monday and every other day of the week as well. The resurrection is our living hope (I Peter 1:3)—Sunday through Saturday—and that’s all that matters. I love how historian Jaroslav Pelikan put it,

“If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

What difference does resurrection make? When you take resurrection reality and power out of the church on Sunday and into your world on Monday, transforming faith, unshakeable hope and radical love will be released into your life. Count Bismarck said, “Without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” But the Bible promises that Jesus’ resurrection is God’s guarantee of your resurrection one day, and that’s something worth celebrating today—even on a proverbial Monday morning!

Apparently in the Greek Orthodox tradition, the day after Easter is devoted to telling jokes. Why? They believe they’re imitating the cosmic joke God pulled on Satan in the resurrection. Satan thought he’d won, that he’d gotten the last word, or so he thought. But God raised Jesus from the dead, and salvation and eternal life became the last word.

When you make the resurrection the foundation of your faith, claim the Risen Savior as the basis of your hope, and invite the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead to be your overflowing source of radical love, come Monday you can laugh in Satan’s face when he throws all kinds of garbage at you. You see, no matter what he does, you win! That is the last word. You are living in the power of the resurrection and the hope of eternity!

Even on Monday morning!

“Let every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection. Let him say not merely, ‘Christ is risen,’ but ‘I shall rise.’” ~Phillips Brooks

Reflect & Apply: Charles Wesley wrote what is arguable the greatest resurrection hymn of all, “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today“. If you know it, sing it every morning this week before you head out for the day. If you don’t know it, it would be a great one to memorize (look it up on your Internet search engine) along with the memory verse.

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No Greater Effort

Today’s Reflection:

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”  (John 17:20-21) .”

Jesus spent his last hours on earth praying desperately for the unity of his church. He knew that without unity, the church would fall apart. But with it, Jesus knew that nothing could stop his people from accomplishing the mission that he had set before them: Reaching the world with the Gospel.

That is the power of unity. The great preacher Vance Havner once said, “Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic.” So it is with the church: If we can ever get together in Spirit-enabled unity, we’ll stop the traffic in our community.

The question is, since we all agree that unity is a powerful and a necessary thing, how do we move from agreement to action? How can we actually practice and sustain unity?

The Apostle Paul gives us some insight in his words to one local church in Ephesians 4:1-3:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Did you notice the word “effort”? Paul says we are to “make every effort” to attain and maintain unity in our church. Frankly, it takes hard, focused, continual, intentional and strategic effort individually and corporately to keep the church united as one.

The word “effort” means to be diligent, to be zealous, to make haste to do something; in this case, being eager and fully dedicated to maintain the unity of the Spirit. It refers to a holy zeal to guard our Christian unity. Why do we need holy zeal? Because Satan’s number one goal is to divide us. That’s why each Christian needs to take the responsibility for the spiritual unity of his or her church.

James Hewitt tells the story of one woman’s unforgettable experience teaching Vacation Bible School with her primary class. The class was interrupted one day about an hour before dismissal when a new student was brought in.

The little boy had one arm missing, and since the class was almost over, she had no opportunity to learn any of the details about the child’s disability or his state of mind. She was afraid that one of the other children would make a comment and embarrass the poor little guy, and there was no time to warn them to be sensitive.

As the class time came to a close, she began to relax. She asked the class to join her in their usual closing ceremony. “Let’s make our churches,” she said. “Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the doors and there’s…”

Then the awful reality of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks. The very thing she had feared the kids would do, she had done. Before she could think of how to rescue that moment, however, a little girl sitting next to the boy reached over with her left hand and placed it up to his right hand and said, “Hey Davey, let’s make the church together”

If you and I give every ounce of effort to keep the unity of the Spirit with other believers, we will make the church together!

Something To Think About

“We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately” ~Benjamin Franklin

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The Tip of the Iceberg

Read: John 21

Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25, NLT)

The Apostle John ends his gospel account of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus with this remarkable commentary: “What I’ve written here about Jesus, you don’t know the half of it. In fact, since I’ve been with him night and day for three and a half years, I’ve gotta tell you, this is just the tip of the iceberg!”

Wow!  As you read through the four Gospels, it is hard to imagine that much more could be added to what Jesus did and said.  I suppose the Holy Spirit limited the inspired thoughts and pens of these men in order to present to us only what our finite minds could absorb.

Even then, we have trouble getting our brains around Jesus, don’t we? I mean, how do you top the incarnation, the immaculate conception, and his miraculous birth at Bethlehem?  Then there is his sinless life—what do you do after that? What more can be added to the Sermon on the Mount? Can anyone illustrate Christianity better than Jesus did with his parables? What about his miracles—how could you improve upon the feeding of the 5,000, the deliverance of the Gadarene demoniac, the healing of the blind man, the walking on water, or the raising of Lazarus?  Is there any “wow factor” left after the crucifixion—and the empty tomb?

Even though we would love to know more, mercifully, we have been given Jesus in bite-sized chunks.  And just with that, we will spend a lifetime in wonder, awe and gratitude for the life, love, death and resurrection of this marvelous Savior and Lord.  Even if all we ever had of Jesus was John 3:16, you and I would have enough to keep us undone with love for all eternity—and then some.

So what do you do for an encore with Jesus? Only one thing remains, which John alluded to back in John 14:3,

“When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

It is probably a good thing that we didn’t get any more details than that, because there is only so much the redeemed mind can absorb this side of heaven!

“Only Christ could have conceived Christ.” ~Joseph Parker

What If God Took Over?

S.D. Gordon wrote, “Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that men can understand.” To as much as our finite minds can handle, the incomprehensible God has made himself comprehensible in Jesus.  Get to know Jesus and you will get to know God.  Spend some time meditating on John 3:16 today—I think you will appreciate God a whole lot more.

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Spiritual Clingers

Read: John 20

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17, NLT)

Imagine Mary’s surprise—and joy—at hearing that familiar voice tenderly whisper her name as she stood before the tomb of Jesus: “Mary!” (John 20:16) She turned to see what she had never expected to find when she left early that morning to care for the Lord’s crucified body. Jesus was alive!  And Mary was so overcome with a thousand different emotions all at one time that she grabbed onto Jesus like she would never let go again.  She had lost him once, she was not about to let that happen twice!

If you are a parent and have ever lost your child in a department store, you will understand that scene: After minutes that seem like hours of panicked searching, you find that child, and while you feel like giving them the mother of all spankings, instead you hug them so tightly they almost suffocate.

That is exactly what Mary did, but in grabbing on to Jesus, she becomes a timeless picture of our tendency to cling to yesterday in order to feel good about today.  We do that in a variety of ways:

  • We fiercely cling to a “spiritual high” from yesterday, wanting it replicated today.

  • We fiercely cling to wounds from disappointment, failure and hurt, and as a result, fear, guilt, and un-forgiveness now controls, if not defines our lives.

  • We fiercely cling to the attention we get by being needy.

  • We fiercely cling to immature views developed in our spiritual adolescence of a God who winks at sin, who doesn’t punish wrong, who must not care about us because he let bad things happen or who is nothing more than a Divine “sugar daddy” who gives everything we want.

Mary was a spiritual clinger; she was guilty of all those incomplete and immature views. Jesus, however, refused to let her stay in that frame of mind, so he said to her, “Don’t hold onto me!” (John 20:17)  The word “hold” is hapto in the Greek text, and it means, “to cling, to desperately grasp onto!” Grammatically, in the negative it means to stop doing what you always do—and are now doing again. Jesus is really saying, “Quit hanging on to your warm, fuzzy memories of past experiences of me. That limits your view of who really I am. Raise your expectations!” In the rest of verse 17, he says to Mary, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God!”

Jesus is pointing to a whole new order. He is more than just the crucified Savior who can forgive your past. He is more than just a rabbi (John 20:16) who gives you guidance and stability in the present.  He is the risen Lord who, by virtue of his own transformation from death back to life, has the authority to transform your life today—and every day from here to eternity. And now he is going to the place of authority from where he will be your constant advocate, constant empowerer, and constant companion—in other words, your living Lord. Jesus is more than Savior—he is also Lord.

Finally, the light dawned for Mary.  She got it! Mary went and found the disciples in John 20:18 and said to them, “I have seen” … not “the teacher” … not “the Savior” …but “I have seen the Lord!”

I hope you will get it too!  Stop clinging to your immature and incomplete views of Jesus. He is not only your Savior—the one who forgives you of your sins, he wants also to be your Lord—the one who will rule over your moment-by-moment life.

“There is not an inch of any sphere of life of which Jesus Christ the Lord does not say, ‘Mine.’” ~Abraham Kuyper

What If God Took Over?

Is there any area of your life that does not belong to Jesus?  Your thought life? Language? Use of money? Friendships? Sex life? Attitude and treatment of others? If he is not Lord over any one of these areas, he is not Lord at all.  So hit your knees and surrender to his Lordship—and never turn back.  You will not regret it!