Category Archives: John

Posted on

The Familiar Place

Read: John 18

After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. (John 18:1-2, NLT)

We know this grove of olive trees was called the Garden of Gesthemane. By the other Gospel accounts we also know that when Judas showed up with the guards to arrest Jesus in this very place, he was in deep and agonizing prayer.  What may be lost amidst the greater drama of Judas’ betrayal and Christ passion, however, are the words, “Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.”

This was a regular place for Jesus.  The disciples were familiar with Jesus’ garden retreat; so was the devil, since he knew to inspire Judas to betray the Savior there. Jesus had gone there often enough that those who knew him knew that would be the very place where he prayed.

Have you ever wondered why John took this small, seemingly insignificant detail and tucked it away within the more obvious storyline of Jesus’ arrest?  Perhaps he wanted us to see what was plain to Jesus’ disciples: That even the Son of God carved out the time and made room and even found a physical place in his life for regular communion with his Father.  Furthermore, Jesus had purposely included his disciples in his private times with God to leave an example for them to show that if he, the very Son of God, needed quiet time, so did they.

So do I—and so do you.

Do you have that regular place?  Do the people in your life know where you spend time with God?  Does the devil know where to find you?  The place itself is not important.  The fact that people know that you are regularly in that place is not important.  What is important is that you are in that place where you can touch God and God can touch you with his love and grace.

It is said that early African Christians were dedicated and regular in their personal devotion to God.  Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God.  Over time the paths to these places became well worn.  As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly challenge anyone neglecting their prayer life, “Brother, the grass grows on your path.”

Keep the path to your garden well worn!

“Prayer is the acid test of devotion.” ~Samuel Chadwick

What If God Took Over?

Perhaps making this very moment of devotion a regular part of your life that you fiercely guard will be the beginning of that “familiar place” for you.

Posted on

Hang Together or Hang Separately

Read: John 17

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” (John 17:20-21, NLT)

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. With unity, however, Jesus knew that nothing could stop his people from accomplishing the mission of 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 get together in 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 practice unity? The Apostle Paul provided some powerful insights in his words to the church in Ephesus:

“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.” (Ephesians 1:1-3)

Did you notice that 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 in guarding our Christian unity. Why do we need holy zeal? To counter Satan’s unholy zeal in dividing us. Satan’s number one goal for the church is disunity. That’s why each Christian needs to take personal 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, a little boy, was brought in. The 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 one armed boy couldn’t make a church with his hands. The very thing she’d feared the kids would do, she’d done. As she stood there speechless, however, the 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”

That is what we need to do—make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit with other believers. As we do, we will make the church together!

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

What If God Took Over?

There is nothing more important to a Father than the unity of his family. Do you give much thought to that?  What strategic and intentional part can you play to attain, maintain and increase the unity of the spirit through the bonds of peace in your spiritual community?

 

Posted on

FYI

Read: John 16

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NLT)

I hate to be blindsided, and I am sure you do, too. Nobody likes to be caught off guard by bad news or troubling circumstances. The surprise of such experiences makes these difficulties doubly devastating.

That’s why Jesus gives us a divine heads-up in John 16. Standing at both ends of this chapter, like bookends, Jesus gave his followers an FYI on some of the challenges they would surely face. In verse one, he says, “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.” Then again in verse 33, the very last verse of the chapter, he reminds them of the insider information he has provided so that when it takes place, they won’t be unsettled by it.

Just what insider information did Jesus provide? Simply that your faith is going to get you into a fair amount of trouble in this life. People are not going to like you because you follow Jesus. You will be persecuted not only for the stand you personally take on moral issues, but just for the position your Christianity represents. In fact, some people will even hate you with a murderous zeal disguised as religious passion simply because of the Christian life you live (John 16:2, NLT). Without even trying, your lifestyle of faith will bring them under such conviction that they will find it intolerable and want to do away with you. Things may get a bit rough, so be ready for it, Jesus says.

The good news, however, is that you will never have to face these difficulties alone. The fact is, through Christ you will overcome each challenge victoriously, even the most extreme challenge of staring into the abyss of martyrdom. You will overcome because you know what is coming. (John 16:1,4, 33, NLT) You will be victorious because Jesus has already been victorious under these same pressures. (John 16:33) You will be able to face these situations with courage and grace because of the presence of the Divine Helper, the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7)  You will win in the hour of trial because the Sovereign Father who loves you (John 16:27) will hear and answer your every prayer. (John 16:23-24)

Knowing ahead of time what is coming, and knowing that your victory has been secured already, you can go about your day, and come what may—trouble, hardship, disappointment, failure, persecution, hatred, even death—live in the wonderful reality of what Christ promised:

“In Me, you will have peace!”

“God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them.” ~C.S. Lewis

What If God Took Over?

You and I do not know what tomorrow holds, but we know Who holds tomorrow. And we know Who holds our lives in his hands. So why don’t you join me in thanking God ahead of time for His peace that will guard our hearts and ease our minds tomorrow,  no matter what circumstances tomorrow may bring.

Posted on

Making God Look Good

Read: John 15

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” (John 15:7-8)

Have you ever been around fruity Christians? Not the kind you are thinking. I’m talking about the believer who seems to enjoy more of God’s blessings than the ordinary Christian? They tend to get more prayers answered than you, live in a greater degree of Divine favor than you, appear to have more of an inside track with the Almighty than you, and definitely produce more spiritual fruit than you.

They’re fruity—their lives produce a lot of fruit.

Perhaps you wish you could live their kind of blessed life, but secretly feel a little selfish in asking God for it. Don’t feel selfish one second longer. God wants you to experience that kind of abundant life, too. In fact, Jesus said the God-blessed life is arguably the best proof that you are his disciple. Furthermore, he pointed out that your fruitfulness as his disciple is what brings much glory to his Father. The fruitier you are, the greater glory that goes to God. The more God answers your prayers, the more he receives the praise.  That’s how you make God look good!

Wanting to live the God-blessed life is not selfish at all. It is no more selfish than God wanting to be glorified by giving you your blessings. It is simply the rule of God’s kingdom to ask for his favor and to live in his blessing.

That’s what God wants for you. So stop feeling weird about asking and start asking expectantly. What do you desire for your life? Ask for it. If you are connected to Jesus—and make no mistake, that is the key to receiving—the Father will allow you to bear not just a little, but a whole bunch of fruit. That what he wants for his disciples, and that includes you.

If you are not at the level of fruitiness that you would like to be, that ought to be your first prayer today.

“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, ‘above all that we ask or think’. Each time, before you Intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!” ~Andrew Murray

What If God Took Over?

Speaking of asking the Father for anything you want, why not ask him for much fruit!

Posted on

Radically Altered

Read: John 14

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:12-14, NLT)

“You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it.” That is a pretty amazing promise Jesus made to his disciples—and by extension—to you and me!

Jesus was laying out his succession plans for God’s kingdom. He told his disciples that he needed to go back to the Father, and in his absence, they would carry on his works in the world, extending the kingdom wherever they went. And although he would no longer be with them physically, he would be with them—and more importantly, live in them and work through them, by the indwelling Holy Spirit:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you” (John 14:16-18)

To his followers who would completely yield their lives in obedience to his word, commitment to his purposes, and availability to his work, Jesus said,  “My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.” (John 14:23)

Those words are from the lips of Jesus himself, and they are meant for you! Do you believe them? If you do, they will transform you to the core of your being. They will radically alter the way you perceive yourself and interact with your world. And they will lead you to have the kind of impact for Christ in this world you have always dreamed of having.

The story is told of a private in the army of the Greek general, Alexander the Great, who ran after and retrieved the general’s runaway horse. When this lowly soldier brought the animal back, Alexander offered his appreciation by saying, “Thank you, Captain!”

With one word the private had been promoted. When the general said it, the private believed it. He immediately went to the quartermaster, selected a new captain’s uniform and put it on. He went to the officer’s quarters and selected his bunk. He went to the officer’s mess and had a meal. Because General Alexander had said it, the private took him at his word and changed his life accordingly. He was simply now doing life in the authority of Alexander.

Why don’t you take the word of Someone far greater than Alexander and change your life accordingly. If you will, greater works will you do!

“Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital [asking in] prayer is.” ~Charles Spurgeon

What If God Took Over?

Offer this prayer for radical alteration: “Lord, I believe what you said. On this day, I ask the Father, as you have commissioned me to do, to empower and embolden me to do the very kingdom works that you would do if you were in my place. And may all glory go back to you!”

Posted on

Soul Happiness

Read: John 13

“Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.” (John 13:17, NLT)

If we are going to be the kind of Christ-followers that God can bless, our behavior will have to align with our beliefs. What we “know” must become what we “do.” Specifically, we will have to live like Jesus lived, which means serving like Jesus served. Jesus made that perfectly clear when he said,

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.  I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. (John 13:13-15, NLT)

So why is serving such a big deal?

First, quite simply, we are called to serve!  Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God…took on the very nature of a servant.” In Galatians 5:13, Paul urged us to “serve one another in love.” When we are serving, we are fulfilling our basic Christian calling, and taking a huge step toward the blessed life Jesus promised.

Second, we were created to serve!  Christians serve!  Like a fish swims and a bird flies, Christians serve! Ephesians 2:10 reminds us “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Think about it: Before you were even conceived, God laid out specific plans just for you.  You are not just an after-thought; you don’t just exist; you are on this earth not just to be a potted plant, you were born not just to consume, but to contribute.  God shaped you to serve him.  That places a big responsibility on your shoulders.  Who you are is not just a product of random combination of your parent’s DNA. No—God was there at the moment you were conceived, even before, according to Ephesians 2:10, deliberately shaping you to serve his purposes through your life.

Third, service is what we contribute to the Body of Christ. God has a very specific purpose in mind for our call to serve: Not just go around helping people out randomly—although that is not a bad idea—but he specifically created us, converted us and called us to contribute to the life, health and mission of the local church.

I Peter 4:10 says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” How is God’s grace distributed?  Not just in our private times with God…not just in corporate worship as we experience his marvelous presence, but as we serve one another.  After salvation, serving is the primary means of God’s grace coming into our lives.

Fourth, service is what captures the world’s attention. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16, NLT)  Here in John 13, Jesus said, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples:  That you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

It’s by authentic servanthood that we become living proof of a loving God.

Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the U.K. Guardian is an outspoken atheist who laments, “It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian.” But after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, he wrote,

“Notable by their absence were teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity… [Christians] are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others.  Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment.  The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me.”

The spotlight never shines more brightly on Jesus than when Christians serve.  “By this, all will know that you are my disciples.”

Fifth, service causes happiness in your soul.  There is something ennobling about serving others.  Paul tells us in Acts 20:35, “Remember that our Lord Jesus said, ‘More blessings come from giving than from receiving.’”

Do you want to live an incredibly blessed life?  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

“Just as a servant knows that he must first obey his master in all things, so the surrender to an implicit and unquestionable obedience must become the essential characteristic of our lives.” ~Andrew Murray

What If God Took Over?

There is one vitally important question you must answer after you have been saved:  Where are you loving God by serving others?

Posted on

Very Spiritual Devils

Read: John 12

“You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” (John 12:8, NLT)

To call someone a “Judas” is to label them a betrayer of the worst kind. It is an accusation that is reserved only for the worst kind of relational offense, since to call another Judas usually implies an irreparable breach in the relationship. After all, who wants to have anything to do with a backstabbing betrayer?

Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, to paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, is an act that will forever live in infamy. But what Judas did to Jesus didn’t make him evil, it only revealed the evil that had, like cancer, been eating away at his character for a long time. The fact is, in Jesus’ own words, “one of you [disciples] is a devil!” (John 6:70). That is, Judas was a devil of the worst kind: a church-going one. As Joseph Hall has said, “No devil is so dangerous as the religious devil.”

As you might imagine of someone who would betray the Lord, this notorious disciple exhibited some other character flaws that mostly go unnoticed in light of his more famous sin. In this account here in John 12, we are told that Judas protested Mary’s act of anointing Jesus with expensive perfume because it could have fetched a handsome price at the market, and money from the sale could have been used to help the poor. Of course, Judas had a hidden motive. Since he was treasurer for this small band of disciples, he apparently dipped his hand in the till from time to time to fund his own needs. Judas was not only a betrayer, but according to John he was also a thief.

Yet as the Gospels are prone to do, there is another side to Judas that is uncomfortably close to so many people who sit beside you every Sunday in the pews of your church. They are the ones who, like clockwork, criticize everything from the room temperature to the sound level to the length and content of the sermon to the unfriendliness of the people to the call for financial commitment, ad nauseam. No matter what, they are never satisfied; there is always a better alternative—and although they are quick to protest, their solutions are never quite clear or doable. In truth, rather than wanting change, they simply want to gripe. They may smile and sing and put a coin or two in the offering plate, yet they are unwitting tools of Satan. The great Swiss theologian Karl Barth was speaking of them when he said, “The devil may also make use of morality.” They are very spiritual devils!

It wasn’t only Judas that Jesus had in mind when he uttered this gentle but pointed rebuke, “for the poor you have always”, he was speaking to the legion of church folk who believe their gift to the church is the ministry of criticism. In truth, their chronic criticism betrays a deeper agenda and uglier issues of character.

Don’t get me wrong—constructive criticism is not a bad thing, if offered in the right spirit, and conflict that is resolved Biblically and in a Christ-like spirit can actually strengthen the church. It is chronic criticizers that I am talking about. In truth, they suffer from the Judas Syndrome: not betrayal, not thievery, but destructive criticism is their sin.

So here’s the deal: If you have to be around someone who suffers this sort of Judas Syndrome, lovingly confront them, as Jesus did. If they don’t see their sin and change their ways, establish some boundaries with them. Don’t let them poison you and cripple your church.

And most of all, don’t be one! Just remember, no one has ever built a statue to a betrayer, a thief, or a critic.

“The devil loves ‘curing’ a small fault by giving you a great one.” ~C.S. Lewis

What If God Took Over?

Are you guilty of covering your own character flaws and deflecting Holy Spirit conviction meant for you with destructive criticism of others? If so, you may be guilty of the Judas Syndrome.  Ask the Lord to show you where you need personal reformation. Then ask him to give you the courage to deal with issues that are keeping you from greater obedience and usefulness to him.