Jesus Knows Best

Posted on by korgrocker

““But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”
John 16:5-7 NLT

How often is it that a parent tells a child, or even a young adult, that they know what is best for them? The foul-tasting medicine. The rules governing bedtimes. The boring homework. Warnings about the company they are keeping. Sometimes the list seems endless, according to the complaints of some children. However, most knuckle down and do as they are told, but others rebel and eventually go their own way, to a life of under achieving or drugs and crime.

But Jesus was in a much more positive place with His disciples. He had assured them, “No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you” (John 14:8). And earlier, “Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going” (John 13:33). By such references comparing them with children, Jesus was saying that He knew what was best for them. The disciples didn’t know who this “Advocate” was. But Jesus was asking the disciples to trust Him. Eleven of them did, but we all know about the one who didn’t. Jesus knew best, and He explained that if He didn’t leave them then they would be unable to experience something that was better. We can just imagine the Father and the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, looking on as the events unfurled before them.

We pilgrims are in a place where the Holy Spirit is doing His work. When we were birthed as new Christians, we believed in Jesus, deciding to follow Him all our days and repenting of our sins. We were baptised in water and we received the Holy Spirit. The scene was set two thousand or so years ago, when the Holy Spirit dramatically entered the lives of ordinary men and women, assembled in that upper room. And He hasn’t left this world ever since. Jesus sent Him to His disciples and he sent Him to us as well. Jesus knows best.

Dear Lord Jesus. Like a good parent, You knew what was best for Your followers, and we are so grateful for Your presence in our lives through the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Aide-Memoir

Posted on by korgrocker

“I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
John 14:25-26 NLT

One thing that gets worse with age is our memories. Memory loss is gradual and it affects some people more than others. As we get older we forget people’s names, for example, but then remember them  after a few minutes or later in the day. We can also forget appointments so we mitigate the effects by putting in place a system of reminders. Other people put their faith in “to do” lists, with phone or tablet apps or a paper and pencil providing the means. As many a preacher will know, asking a congregation about what he or she preached on the previous week can be demoralising, although many skilled orators will limit the amount of information and will use repetition to help audience retention. Buzz words and techniques such as catchy and related titles and sub-titles will also assist a congregation’s recall capacity. 

Jesus told His disciples that when He returns to His Heavenly home, He will send His representative, the Holy Spirit, who will have two main functions, teaching and reminding. I wonder what those early disciples were expecting? A physical presence sitting on their shoulders and whispering in their ears? Today we could perhaps imagine an “Alexa” or a “Siri” performing in the same way; after all smart phones seem to be ubiquitous. But the Holy Spirit was and is nothing like any man-made aid. Instead He is a gift from God, given to us through His grace and mercy and to fulfil the John 14:26 promise made by Jesus.

Another feature of the Holy Spirit is that non-believers do not have any knowledge of His presence at all. In John 14:17, Jesus said, “ …  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“. Not for the world are the benefits of believing in Jesus – the Holy Spirit is a special Person who comes to live within us to teach us all about the way to our ultimate spiritual home and to remind us of all the things that Jesus taught about. The first disciples had received three years or so of teaching from Jesus, teaching that was both by word, such as the parables favoured by the Master Preacher, but also through the day to day experiences, as they followed their Lord and God. It was, to them, all life-changing “stuff” but probably difficult to make sense of at the time. 

We pilgrims have the benefits of the written down words of the New Testament, but before we think that we don’t therefore need an aide-memoire, the teaching contained in the Scripture has to be applied to our daily lives. The Holy Spirit does favour an academic exercise or philosophical debate. We read in Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is life changing and transformational. We transition from being a world-follower to being a God-follower and there is literally a “world” of a difference. Someone I know feels very inadequate because they cannot remember Scripture very well, but the amazing thing is that they find what they need in the recesses of their mind when an opportunity arises and requires it. Watching the Holy Spirit at work in another believer is a thing of joy. The Holy Spirit, a teaching aid and a memory aid. What an amazing God we serve and follow!

Dear Father God. Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, allowing Your presence to be with us for ever. Amen.

Obedient Love

Posted on by korgrocker

“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
John 14:21 NLT

“Accept and obey”, Jesus said. The trouble is, too many people will accept the veracity and appropriateness of His commands, but when it comes to obeying them, it’s a different story. So much of what Jesus taught is counter-cultural and, consequently, life-changing if it is followed. Take for example the Beatitude, “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth” (Matthew 5:5). The secularists in the workplace will promote the opposite, saying things like, “Those who shout the loudest will reap the rewards”, or, “If you don’t push yourself forward you’ll miss out”.  There is no humility present on the promotion ladder. A bit further on in the Beatitudes, we read, “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” Matthew 5:10). Those people with the courage to defy the authorities by standing outside an abortion clinic, doing right by silently praying for those who enter in, are persecuted, arrested and, if the politicians have their way, will soon be incarcerated just because of their prayerful thoughts.

As we read further through the Sermon on the Mount,  we find commandments that are impossible, humanly speaking, to keep. In Matthew 5:21-22 we read, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell”. The Pharisees claimed that they were ok because they hadn’t murdered anyone. Jesus said different. Another thorny area is what Jesus said about judging others. “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2). And as for lust and divorce … but we won’t go there.

How do we show our love for Jesus by keeping His commandments, not just accepting them? How do we follow all His teaching? Jesus said to His disciples, and as recorded in Matthew 19:26, “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible”“. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. But here’s the thing – straight after He said this, He said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you” (John 14:16). Jesus recognised that in their humanity, the disciples were never going to be able to keep His commandments, so He asked His father to send His indwelling Holy Spirit who would empower His followers to be obedient to all He had said. 

Thankfully, we pilgrims have Someone who is praying for us, as we tramp ever onwards towards our Heavenly goal. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have a Saviour who forgives us as we confess our sins, and as we allow the Holy Spirit to refine our lives day by day. We have a win-win faith because God sacrificed Himself for our salvation. No other religion comes anywhere close to this.

Dear Father. We can only bow before You, the God who saves, in deep gratitude and worship. Amen.

The Advocate

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 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.”
John 14:15-17 NLT

Who is this “Advocate”? The Amplified version of the Bible helps – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—” (John 14:16). The impression emerges that there are insufficient words in the English language to describe who the Advocate is. The Greek word is parakletos, from where we get the word Paraclete, another description of the “Advocate”.

But we know who the “Advocate” is because He is the third Person of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit. And Jesus continued – “He … will never leave you” and “He … leads into all truth”. This is mind blowing! That God would condescend to live within us through the Person of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is beyond humbling. And the fact that he will never leave us … Through ever situation we are ever likely to encounter, God is there with us. Perhaps we comfortable Western believers can see how our brothers and sisters in other places in the world can look death in the face and overcome the persecution, the loss of property, the imprisonment and even death. God is with them and He never leaves them.

The Holy Spirit “leads [us] into all truth”. Earlier in John 14 Jesus said that He is the truth, and even though He isn’t with us in person, that truth is still with us. We find that the “truth” is in God’s Word and as Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). There are many customs in our modern times, many of them with dubious intentions, that don’t appear in the Bible, but it is amazing that there are Holy-Spirit-inspired principles to follow that apply today. For example, mobile phones didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, but we know how to use them in an honourable way through Biblical principles, the Holy Spirit providing us with guidance as we use them. And the Holy Spirit will lead us in our daily lives wherever we find ourselves. 

One of my favourite verses is in Acts 2, embedded in Peter’s amazing sermon following which three thousand people were saved. He described the Holy Spirit as being a Gift to all believers. “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Paul reminded all believers that the Holy Spirit lives within us. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (Romans 8:11). How can we pilgrims ever refuse this amazing God-gift? Free and powerful, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. No secular philosopher or scientist, atheist or otherwise, can ever make such a claim, as they fumble their way through a dark devil-inspired corridor of ultimate shame, searching for truths that are only found through our amazing God.

Heavenly Father. We praise and worship You, with gratitude for Your heavenly Gift, the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Comforter. Amen.

Jesus’ Commands

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 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.”
John 14:15-17 NLT

Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. Perhaps we wonder what they are, so, we reach for our Bibles and start to work our way through the Gospels, considering carefully Jesus’ every Word. The first command we find in Matthew 4:17, “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near””. A couple of verses on we find, “Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”” (Matthew 4:19). So, from Matthew 4 we have Jesus’ commands to repent of our sins and to follow Him. But when we get to Matthew 5 the enormity of what it means to obey the commands of Jesus starts to dawn. Someone has calculated that there could be as many as three hundred commands that Jesus left us with. By the time we get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount we will be reaching for the anti-depressives. In our human strength it is not possible to know and be obedient to all the commands of Jesus. And in any case, should we try, we would be heading for membership of the ancient order of the Pharisees, who maintained that they were righteous because they obeyed every jot and tittle of the Law of Moses. But we should remember that the commands of Jesus are not just a to-do list; they are an invitation to a relationship with God Himself. 

In 1 Peter 1:16 we read, “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy”“. In Hebrews 12:14 we read, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” Self-explanatory verses, that, combined with Jesus’ command that we obey His commandments, define the pass mark for entering Heaven. 

But just because we find it impossible to obey all Jesus’ commands shouldn’t mean we should just give up. With God everything is possible, as we read in Matthew 19:26, ““Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible””. We understand just how impossible it is for us to keep God’s commandments and how often we fail to do so and can therefore never be righteous before God on our own accord. It is Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross that pays the penalty for our sins, and in return we receive His righteousness. Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. 

So we pilgrims, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit living within us, obey Jesus’ commands. And if we fail and slip up, as we often will, we come again to the Cross in repentance. And in our pilgrimage we become more like Jesus, day by day, command by command.

Dear Lord Jesus. You left us with a legacy of commands and examples for us to follow. But You didn’t leave is on our own to muddle through. We thank You the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who helps us each and every day. Amen.

The Human Jesus

Posted on by korgrocker

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
Romans 8:3-4 NLT

Our sinful natures, ubiquitous and universal, give control freaks a problem. No matter how hard they try, they will never be able to control their seemingly unstoppable ability to commit sins. As Paul said in these verses today, even with the help of the Law of Moses, they will be too weak to effectively live up to God’s righteous standard all of the time. We may all succeed in staying righteous for a few moments, but then, at the very least, our thoughts will wander off and focus on something sinful. But thankfully, God didn’t walk away from us, wringing His hands in despair. He sent His Son Jesus “in a body like the bodies we sinners have”. Surely, He must have thought, they will listen to My Son.

We know from the accounts of the Apostles that Jesus lived His life as one of us but in a sinless state. No-one has ever been able to point a finger at Jesus and say, “Aah, but what about …”. We know how His life ended. Surely the greatest and most devastating miscarriage of justice there has ever been. But by God allowing His Son to be sacrificed, He “declared an end to sin’s control over us”. 

We note from these verses today that God didn’t do away with the Law. But we know that, because Jesus said so in Matthew 5:17, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose”. The Law, according to Paul, had a “just requirement” that had to be fully satisfied. And it still does. Jesus told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to help them, and by following Him, they would be released from the power of sin over their lives. Jesus said in John 15:26, “But I will send you the Advocate —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me”. And we know how that happened if we read Acts 2.

Through Jesus, there is no more condemnation for sinners like us. As the old song says, “It is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me”. And because He lives in us through His Spirit, He helps us so that no more will we be under sin’s power. We are free! Praises be to God!

Dear Lord. You set us free from the power of sin and death at Calvary. Please help us to share that truth with all those we meet. In Your precious name. Amen.