Category Archives: John

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A Baptism Of Clear Seeing

Being With Jesus:
John 7:24 (NLT)

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

People were making judgments about Jesus, and as we see in John 7, increasingly, those judgments were not very positive. In fact, opposition and outright hostility were coming to a boiling point, and it would soon lead to his death.

That is the way it was with Jesus—still is. In his day, people either loved him or hated him—there was no neutral ground. Being around Jesus demanded a position on one end of the spectrum or the other, but staying in the middle was not an option.

To arrive at an opinion of Jesus, a judgment had to be made. Sadly, those who rejected him formed judgments that were not based on righteousness and truth. Their judgments were based on the fact that Jesus had made them uncomfortable. He had challenged their traditions. His ministry had colored outside the lines of established theology. His way of doing things didn’t look like theirs. Why, he even had the audacity to actually heal someone in dire need on the Sabbath—and they didn’t like that one bit (even though, as Jesus pointed out, their outrage was pretty selective on this one).

Never one to shy away from controversy and confrontation, Jesus challenged their attitudes toward him as well as their approach to life in general. He called them to reject this judgment-by-appearance mindset that was keeping them from seeing God for a clearer view of life as seen through the lens of righteousness. Learning to make righteous judgments would make all the difference in their world—it would lead them to see God in the daily details of their world, and in the end, it would lead to eternal life.

Unfortunately, most of the people in Jesus’ day rejected what he had to say. But the story is not meant to end there. Jesus’ challenge to “judge with righteous judgment” (NIV) or to “look beneath the surface” (NLT) calls us to reexamine the way we arrive at the opinions we hold and honestly ask ourselves whether they are based on appearance, built on preference, colored by pre-conceptions, or rooted in righteousness.

We form judgments and opinions every day—perhaps every hour—about the people we encounter, the events we observe, and the world we live in. Every moment of our day presents opportunity to either see the work that God is doing in the people around us and events that encounter us or to miss it entirely. And depending how we form our judgments, we will either embrace God’s work, or like the people in Jesus’ day, reject it and miss out on the greatness of God in the daily ordinariness of life.

Open your heart—God is at work all around you. Open your eyes—you will find God’s thumbprint on everything you encounter. And if you will learn to root your opinions, conclusions and attitudes in righteousness rather than mere appearance, you will discover Jesus in the details of your day!

“We need a baptism of clear seeing. We desperately need seers who can see through the mist—Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.” (A.W. Tozer)

Getting To Know Jesus: Let me suggest you offer this prayer: “Father, help me to practice your presence in the daily ordinariness of my life. Teach me to make righteous judgments so that I might see you in every person I meet, every event I take in, every plan I execute, and in every detail of my world.”

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The Gravitational Pull Of Human Celebrity

Being With Jesus:
John 7:2-4 (NLT)

Soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!”

“Thou shalt become famous” is not one of the Ten Commandments. “Blessed are the spiritual celebrities, for they shall draw much attention” was not one of the Beatitudes Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. “Feed my sheep…so it can grow into a nationally televised mega-ministry” was not the charge Jesus gave his disciples.

Yet the all-consuming desire for fame and the gravitational pull of celebrity is stronger today among Christian leaders than ever before. Jesus’ brothers would have made a great PR team, but they don’t hold a candle to today’s image conscious ministries. All you have to do is tune in to Christian television, turn on Christian radio, walk into a Christian bookstore, or surf just about anything Christian and you will be immediately impressed with the swelling ranks of those who have attained Christian rock star status. In this day and age, to make it to the “bigs”, all you’ve got to do is sell a book, have your own show—or get on one, be the spiritual authority on all the media quotes when there is breaking news, have your own blog, replete with adoring readers and do whatever you can to get your name—and your mug—out there where the folks can discover just what a gift you are to humankind.

That doesn’t sound too much like Jesus, does it? He resisted any and every attempt to become famous, catapult to power, get rich and build a crowd of raving fans. In fact, he did just about everything you shouldn’t do to build a successful ministry. He avoided attention—if it was for wrong motives. He said very hard things to would be followers. He insulted the religious movers and shakers. He hung out with the wrong people. He championed causes no one on their way to the top would touch with a ten-foot pole. He grew his band of followers down to 11 guys who were mostly religious rejects. And he got himself killed—crucified as a common criminal.

Oh—and he changed the world!

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a new crop of spiritual leaders who didn’t give a fig about fame and celebrity dominate the Christian scene today? Well, turn off your TV—and the radio. Forget about the cover of the latest edition of “Jesus Weekly” and quit reading all those pastor-blogs (except for one). Get in your car and take a drive out to a small town some Sunday, walk into a little country church and you are likely to find a simple shepherd who isn’t very famous—and won’t ever be—except with God. He, or she, simply loves God, and the flock—and one day, when the dust settles and we all stand before God, that faithful pastor will receive a standing ovation from the Great Cloud of Witnesses.

They never sought fame—they only wanted to make Jesus famous!

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
(Emily Dickinson)

Getting To Know Jesus: Memorize this Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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Star-Struck Fans Or Fully-Devoted Disciples

Being With Jesus:
John 6:53-56 (NLT)

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

The crowds had been pretty impressed with Jesus—and why not? He had healed their sick; he had fed their multitudes—5,000 of them were treated to a full meal when he miraculously multiplied a couple of sardines and five loaves of bread; he had even walked on their water—literally traipsing across the Sea of Galilee, and if that weren’t miraculous enough, it was in the middle of a storm. So you can see why they wanted to hang around Jesus. Who wouldn’t?

But Jesus didn’t want star-struck fans, he wanted fully devoted disciples. So, in essence, he said, “Whatever your reason for following me up ‘til now, let me take you to a deeper, more satisfying experience, and you can only do that by taking my life fully into your own.” Oh, he didn’t say it quite that innocuously; he got pretty graphic and told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to be his disciples. And when the adoring crowds heard Jesus lay down the demands of discipleship in that way, they were shocked—and turned off. The New English Bible translates John 6:60 this way: “This is more that we can stomach. Why listen to such words?”

Why were they so upset? Was it because they found Jesus’ word so revolting? Was it because they didn’t understand what he was saying? I don’t think so! In fact, they were upset because they knew all too well what he was asking of them. He was calling them to accept him as God’s Son, the true bread of life, the only one who could truly satisfy their spiritual hunger and quench their thirst for God, both now and for all eternity. Jesus was calling them radically to commit their lives totally to him, promising that if they did, then, and only then, would their deepest longings and innermost needs be fully met in him.

Jesus’ call to radical discipleship, using those provocative terms, would not have been unfamiliar to them. When a leader in that era called for unreserved commitment, he would demand that his followers “eat his flesh and drink his blood”. So the reason the crowd was upset and abandoned Jesus at hearing this was because they knew exactly what Jesus was asking: Nothing less than total commitment and full surrender.

Interestingly, Jesus used two different words in two different Greek tenses for “eating his flesh.” In John 6:53, the word “eat” meant to eat once and for all—a specific act at a moment in time that produced continuing effects into the future. He was speaking of the act of salvation—a specific moment in time when you give your life over to Christ and are born again. Salvation occurs at a moment in time, but it produces effects that continue throughout life and clear into eternity. The second word for “eat” in John 6:54 referred to a continuous act of daily and voraciously taking life-giving, soul-satisfying nourishment into one’s life. Jesus was referring not to salvation, but to the daily walk of discipleship.

In both cases, to “eat and drink of him” means to so thoroughly absorb Jesus that every fiber of who you are and every aspect of how you live is fundamentally and profoundly affected. And when he is invited in and allowed to fully and completely take over your life that way, something wonderful will happen: Jesus begins to show through.

That reminds me of the story of a little girl who turned to her mother on their way home from church and said, “Mommy, the pastor’s sermon confused me.” The mother said, “Why was that?” The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” The mother replied, “Yes, honey!” Then the little girl said, “And he also said that God lives in us. Is that true, mommy?” The mother again said, “Yes, that’s true, too.” Upon hearing that, the girl said, “Well, mommy, if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

That is what happens when you take Jesus so thoroughly and fundamentally in to your life—both at salvation and in your daily walk as his disciple. He begins to show through, and that is a good thing! If he is not showing through, it is likely that you are lacking in good spiritual nutrition, and, in the words of your Lord, you need to go back and “eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.”

“Salvation is free … but discipleship will cost you your life.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Getting To Know Jesus: Offer this prayer of committed discipleship: “Jesus, I want to absorb your life so fully into mine that you show through. I offer myself to you; Lord, fully take me over.”

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Miracles Are Momentary; Faith Is Forever

Being With Jesus:
John 6:27 (NLT)

“Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.”

People are infatuated with miracles! They always have been and always will. I get that! I would love to see more of them as well. And in fact, even though some would deny the miraculous still occurs, they are abounding around the world—especially where we find Christianity in developing nations. When I return from my church planting mission in Africa, usually with dozens of stories of the miraculous, I am always asked, “How come we don’t see the supernatural like that in America?”

I have opinions about that, which I will save for another time, but the point I want to make is that we are no different than the people in Jesus’ day. They too, wanted Jesus to show them the miraculous. Even after he performed miracles, they would turn around and ask him to do a miracle—not another one, mind you, but “do a miracle” as if he had not done one in the first place—so they could believe in him. (John 6:30)

Well, Jesus wanted them to believe in him too. So throughout his ministry, he performed miracles to get their attention and clear the path for them to put saving belief in him as Messiah, God’s Son sent as the only source of their eternal salvation. In this chapter, John 6, Jesus has just performed two of his many outstanding miracles: the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, and walking on water in the midst of a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee. And he points out to the people that these “works of God” were to lead them to the only work of God that the Father wanted from them: “Believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Now while Jesus used the miraculous to draw attention to his Divine mission and to authenticate his Divine nature, he also knew that people would gravitate to his miracles as an end in themselves, and not as the pathway to saving belief. That’s why he challenged their shortsighted and selfish request for more miracles:

“But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food [which had just been provided in the miracle feeding]. No, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Messiah, can give you. For God the Father has sent me for this very purpose.”

What was Jesus saying? Miracles are temporary. Think about it: The five thousand people who had just received the bread and fish in the miraculous multiplication would be hungry again the next day. The disciples who were deathly afraid while in the boat that stormy night would face the temptation to fear again, even though Jesus just had demonstrated once and for all his sovereignty over the elements. The people that Jesus raised from the dead in this life would die again some day. So too would the people he miraculously healed.

Yes, miracles are temporary fixes to human frailties, and occasionally our gracious and merciful God breaks into our humanity to provide them, but the miraculous is simply a pathway to saving belief (the faith required for our eternal salvation) and trusting belief (the faith required to obediently walk in daily dependence on God). Miracles are for the moment; belief is boundless, going beyond the moment and lasting throughout eternity.

So if a miracle is provided in the moment, and it leads to faith, which is forever, then more power to the miraculous!

“The gospel which they so greatly needed they would not have; the miracles which Jesus did not always choose to give, they eagerly demanded.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

Getting To Know Jesus: Let me suggest you offer this prayer: “Father, help me to practice your presence in the daily ordinariness of my life. Teach me to make righteous judgments so that I might see you in every person I meet, every event I take in, every plan I execute, and in every detail of my world.”

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Praying Before Your Meals

Being With Jesus:
John 6:11 (NLT)

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.

This easy-to-overlook verse is sandwiched between two of Jesus’ outstanding miracles—the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two small fish, and the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. Not only that, at the end of this lengthy chapter is some of the heaviest theology that Jesus would ever lay on his would-be followers. It was so demanding and confrontational, in fact, that his followers called it a “hard saying”, and many of them quit following him from that point on.

With so much important stuff going on in this chapter, it would be easy to miss the fact that Jesus stopped to give thanks before a meal. Think about that for a moment: Why would Jesus do that? In a sense, wasn’t he really saying grace to himself? What purpose did this serve?

To begin with, I think Jesus was truly grateful to his Father for this provision of resources by which the miraculous feeding could occur. I think Jesus was authentically thankful that his Father had authorized the use of Divine power and was about to yet again authenticate the Messianic ministry and mission of the Son. I think the Second Person of the eternal Trinity was a fundamentally grateful being. It was just who Jesus was; the organic overflow of his Divine nature was love, joy, confidence and, in this case, gratitude.

Jesus—the eternal, self-existence One—said grace before his meal. And if Jesus, who didn’t have to do it, did it, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

Not only that, Jesus was modeling for us the appropriateness and power of gratitude. He was reminding us by his actions that it doesn’t hurt to stop and express thanksgiving to God, and one of the simplest and recurring ways to enter into gratitude is to say a simple “thank you” before each meal.

We don’t know exactly what Jesus said in his prayer, but it was likely short and sweet. John simply says he “gave thanks”. He acknowledged God in that moment, drawing attention to the Heavenly Provider and reminding both himself and those who were within earshot of his dependence on and gratitude to Father God.

That is something you and I can do too, each time we sit down (or drive through) for a meal. We can give thanks. As redundant and useless and perfunctory as it may seem, there is power in this simple act. And if Jesus, who didn’t have to do it, did it, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” (C.S. Lewis)

Getting To Know Jesus: Before every meal this week, say grace. Pause, think about it; then offer up to your gracious Heavenly Father the gratitude that is in your heart for all the good things he has provided.

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Loving Scripture But Missing God

Being With Jesus:
John 5:39-40 (NLT)

You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

I can think of no simpler yet more powerful practice for greater spiritual growth and intimacy with God than daily Bible study. The truth is, if you don’t have a regular quiet time with God—which would include not just reading, but meditation as well as incorporating the Scripture in prayer—you will be stunted in your spiritual vitality. It is a simple as that.

Yet Bible reading, journaling, Scripture memory and all the other wonderful disciplines that involve the Word of God are not enough. In fact, there is a very real danger lurking in the practice of daily quiet time that will lead to even greater distance from God than not reading at all: Love of the Word of God more than love of the God of the Word. That is what we might call bibliolatry.

Bibliolatry occurs when we acquire biblical knowledge without spiritual discernment; when our study of the Word is not commensurate to our obedience of the Word; when our love for Scripture exceeds our love for God, and correspondingly, love for our fellow man; when pride in our practice of Bible reading leads to a false sense of righteousness; and when the spiritual discipline of quiet time becomes a work of law rather than an experience of grace. When that occurs, in effect, we are worshiping the Bible rather than the God of the Bible.

There are far too many “Christians” who read the Bible little, if at all. That is an unfortunate blight on the modern church. Yet there is another segment of believers, much smaller, but in deeper spiritual danger, who have been lulled into a sort of spiritual smugness because they fancy themselves as “people of the Word” or because, as they happily proclaim, the church they attend really “teaches” the Word.

Knowing the Bible isn’t enough. Satan knows the Bible as well as anyone. He can quote it at will. Daily reading and Scripture memory aren’t enough. Nicodemus (see John 3) had that down pat. Going to a church that teaches the Word verse-by-verse isn’t enough. The Pharisees had that down pat, yet they were far from God.

The devil knows the Bible as well as anyone, yet he’s still the devil. Nicodemus knew Scripture too, yet he still needed to be born again. The Pharisees knew the Word inside and out, yet they were still far from God. Knowing the Bible isn’t enough; believing in Jesus is! Jesus said, “Scripture points to me!” He also said, “When you find me, you find eternal life.” The ultimate goal of your devotional life should not be to attain greater Bible knowledge or even just to grow spiritually. The best goal—the only goal, in fact—of being in the Word should be to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. That is life—now and for all eternity!

Hearing, reading, and believing the Bible aren’t enough. Believing in Jesus is. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” (John 3:36)

The ultimate goal of Bible study should not be to gain greater knowledge of Scripture, or to grow spiritually, or to simply be able to check off that item on your daily list of things to do. The best goal—the only goal, in fact—should be to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. By “knowing”, I am not referring to an intellectual event, but the intimate exchange of one’s life with the Almighty whereby love is deepened, obedience is practiced, and faith is expanded.

That is when searching the Scripture leads to eternal life.

“Christ is the Word of God. It is not in certain texts written in the New Testament, valuable as they are; it is not in certain words which Jesus spoke, vast as is their preciousness; it is in the Word, which Jesus is, that the great manifestation of God is made.” ~Phillips Brooks

Getting To Know Jesus: Honestly evaluate your study of God’s Word. Is it leading you to greater intimacy, obedience and love, or is it simply growing your knowledge of the Bible with growth in the aforementioned? Ask God to show you, and make adjustments immediately.

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No Judgment

Being With Jesus:
John 5:24 (NLT)

Here is the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.

We live in a culture that despises the notion of judgment on any level. And in particular, we are not too comfortable with an angry God. People prefer a tame God to a dangerous one. As Dorothy Sayers aptly put it, “We have declawed the lion of Judah and made him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies.”

I don’t blame people for that. But if we are to be faithful to the authority of the Scripture, then we will have to acknowledge that God hates sin, that it is morally offensive to his nature and it is only right and just that he judges the unrepentant who persist in breaking his moral law.

The sobering reality is, God’s righteous wrath will be poured out on sinful humanity some day in the future. When people die in their sinful state, there is a literal hell that awaits them, a physical place where they will suffer the eternal wrath of God. Likewise, Scripture is very clear that one day, at the end of the age, the Great White Throne judgment of God (Revelation 20, Romans 2:5-6) will mark the final end of sin, when Satan, evil systems, and all the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire forever.

Obviously, that is a boatload of bad news! Yet amazingly, because of the immutable character of our gracious and merciful God, even within the bad news there is good news—Good News that should cause our hearts to explode in grateful praise. We can escape judgment!

You see, God’s righteous wrath for mankind’s sin was satisfied at Calvary when Jesus suffered and died as the final sacrifice for our sins. God fully focused his judgment against sinful man on his sinless Son, Jesus, as he hung on the cross. In the greatest act of grace and mercy ever, Jesus bore the wrath of God for the sins of the world when he was crucified. (I Peter 2:24)

And Jesus is very clear that when a person puts believing or saving faith in who he is (God in the flesh) and in what he was sent to do (die as the redeeming sacrifice for the sins of the world) and personally trusts that he rose from the dead as Lord of life, then that believing person gets a pass on the worst, most dreadful, persistent fear—in this case, a reality-based fear: The fear of dying and facing the judgment of God.

For sure, it can be quite discouraging to hear about a God who actually punishes sin. And yes, we can understand why our culture wants to deny the reality of any kind of judgment. Yet anyone—yes, anyone—can take heart that in spite of that reality there stands at the center of Divine wrath the grace and mercy of a God so loving that he was willing to sacrifice his only Son so that the guilt of sin could be erased from our account.

And that includes you, me and anyone else who will surrender to Jesus in believing faith. As Jesus said two chapters previously, “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not die but have eternal life.”

Obviously, there is a reason that John 3:16 is the most well-loved verse in the entire Bible.

“People want a God without wrath who brings people without sin into a kingdom without judgment to a Christ without a Cross.” (H. Richard Niebuhr)

Getting To Know Jesus: When you are in conversations with people who don’t believe in Jesus—and even with some who claim faith in Christ—it is likely that some of those you encounter will be of the “no judgment” mindset. Try to represent this Truth when that happens: Yes, there is a judgment coming, but there is also an escape clause that God has built into his righteous obligation to judge sin—saving faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That really is Good News!