“Where Is Your Father”

Posted on by korgrocker

“Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.” “Where is your father?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come.”
John 8:17-20 NLT

From these four verses we learn something significant about Jesus’ Father. Firstly, He had sent Jesus on His mission of salvation to Planet Earth, and secondly, Jesus’ Father would be instantly recognisable to anyone who knew Jesus. Of course, in our Western minds, we immediately think of two separate and individual people – a Father and a Son – but their relationship was more than that. They were, and still are, two members of the Trinity, and we know that the third person would soon be coming to the lives of those early believers and disciples, because Jesus said so. Regarding His relationship with His Father, Jesus later said in John 10:30, “The Father and I are one”. Regarding the third member of the Trinity, Jesus said in John 14:16-17, “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 recognise him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you”. We pilgrims worship a triune God, and in the Old Testament we can find references to all three members of the Trinity, who appeared at various times.

This unique relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is even more amazing when we understand that the third Person, the Holy Spirit, lives within us. He is a Gift sent by God. Peter preached, “ … 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. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God” (Acts 2:38-39). The Holy Spirit within us brings us right into God’s domain, allowing us access to His thoughts – 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us”. We know from John 10 that the Holy Spirit will never leave us and will lead us into all the truth we need about God and His Kingdom. The Holy Spirit will also point to Jesus – John 16:14-15, “He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me’”. 

The relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is much closer than we might think. The old hymn ends with this line, “God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity”. Jesus often referred to His Father While He was here on earth. Many times He went away into the hills, especially early in the morning, to spend time with Him. Throughout His ministry, the Holy Spirit was in Jesus, empowering and supporting Him regardless of His circumstances. And to think that we pilgrims have the same opportunity is mind boggling.

When people look at us, do they see what God sees? A child of God, righteous and blessed, who has been saved through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary? Would other people get a glimpse of Father God in us? Nevertheless, we shine as beacons of hope in our world, bringing God’s message to those around us. Perhaps our friends and family will see something of Father God as we witness to all we have seen and heard. Jesus had a simple message to those people around Him. “Believe in Me and you will live forever”. Too good to be true? Too good not to be.

Dear Lord Jesus, we once again declare our love for You, acknowledging all You have done for us. We worship You today. Amen.

No Arrest

Posted on by korgrocker

“Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him. When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “We have never heard anyone speak like this!” the guards responded.”
John 7:44-46 NLT

The Temple guards had a dilemma. They had been sent to arrest Jesus, but they had no legal mandate to do so, other than the instructions of the religious leaders. But in Jesus’ presence they were overcome by His gracious and life-giving words, in some way touched by God. I picture a group of the senior clerics, the leading priests and the Pharisees, meeting together, and deciding to send the guards to arrest Jesus. So, the guards were called in and given their instructions. Off they went and found Jesus in the Temple teaching the people. He wouldn’t have been hard to find, because of the crowd who were probably standing there silently and listening to what Jesus had to say. In other places in the Gospels we read about how Jesus spoke with an authority they had never experienced from their own teachers. But the guards paused for a few moments, taking in the scene and starting to listen to Jesus as well. Mesmerised, they forgot their mission, and when the session came to a natural end, they returned to the meeting of clerics without Jesus. I wonder why they returned, but I suppose they had to report back to their employers. I also wonder what story they started to form in their minds to excuse their lack of action? But in reply to the question, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” they replied,  “We have never heard anyone speak like this!”.

In the Temple, Jesus was communicating God’s message to His people. This was a brave thing to do because the religious leaders claimed that right for themselves, but early on in His mission, Jesus came up against the traditional religious environment of His day. His message was forgiveness and life, much more attractive than the Pharisaical message of laws and rules. He performed miracles and signs, and gave the glory to God, who subsequently touched those Temple guards with a message of hope and a future with Him. More than anyone else, those guards would have been well aware of the hypocrisy in the religious lives of their leaders, so it is no wonder that they were refreshed by an encounter with Jesus.

We pilgrims can have such an encounter with our Lord and Saviour at any time, through the power of the Holy Spirit within us. But we too must beware of becoming fixed and hypocritical in our faith. We worship the living God, who has made available to us the “living water” Jesus offered to the temple crowd that day at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. We drink at every opportunity, so that the water of life will flow around us and touch all the sceptics in the “crowd”, with God’s gracious words of forgiveness and life.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for the water of life that perpetually pours from Your throne in rivers of blessing. We praise You today. Amen.

Prophet or Messiah

Posted on by korgrocker

“When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, “Surely this man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others said, “But he can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee? For the Scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.” So the crowd was divided about him. Some even wanted him arrested, but no one laid a hand on him.”
John 7:40-44 NLT

There were obviously some people in the crowd who knew their Bibles. The reference to the “Prophet” came from verses in Deuteronomy 18, “Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. … I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:15,18). And the prophecy about the “Messiah” came from Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf”. Still others didn’t rate Jesus at all, presumably considering Him to be a fraud, so they wanted to arrest Him. It was not a time in history when you would want to make claims of divinity, it seems.

But the three-way schism in the crowd that had gathered in the Temple came to nothing, because “no one laid a hand on Him”. Jesus’ presence, and His teaching and miracles, started many people off on a spiritual journey by confronting their beliefs and behaviours. If Jesus was in fact the Prophet or Messiah, then what should they do? But their religious leaders had publicly rejected Jesus because He didn’t pander to their religiosity and because He didn’t behave in the way they, the religious leaders, expected. They were perhaps expecting a Jesus such as we read about in Revelation, coming on a white horse at the head of an army, ready to do battle with the forces of evil. So the people were indeed left, as Jesus said later, like sheep without a shepherd. 

Perhaps the question for today is what do we think about Jesus? At His first coming was He the Prophet or the Messiah, foretold by the ancient prophets? We pilgrims have the benefit of hindsight, and know the truth. Jesus came as the Son of God, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, and offering Himself as the Saviour of everyone who believes in Him. Most people in our Western societies today will have very different views, even if they have any views about Jesus at all. But there has never been anyone born in this world who has impacted history as much as Jesus did. 

In the Temple that day, the people were not aware of the importance of the occasion. They knew Someone significant was before them but that was probably as far as it went for most of them. But there would have been a few people that God had called who listened to Jesus and then went away changed by an encounter with Him. People who desired more than anything else the “living water” that Jesus was offering. These were people who became the bedrock of the early church, and to whom we should be grateful. In the generations since, there have been a significant minority of people who have heard God’s call and who have followed Him, often in difficult and life-threatening circumstances. One day we will all meet up, and be with our Saviour for ever, rewarded for our faith and belief in Him.

Dear God. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit, so available to all who ask. We thank You for refilling us every day, and for keeping us close to You. Amen.

Living Water

Posted on by korgrocker

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)”
John 7:37-39 NLT

It was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. For the previous seven days, water had been poured out at the base of the altar in the Temple, but on this day it wasn’t. So perhaps symbolically, Jesus stood up and offered to the people “living water”, with one proviso – the people had to believe in Him. Once again Jesus was talking about spiritual water, not the physical water so sought after in that dry and dusty land. Helpfully, John explained this for the benefit of the people reading his Gospel; the spiritual “living water” was the Holy Spirit, the giving of whom was a gift from God following a person’s salvation. In Acts 2:38, in the middle of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he said, “ … 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”. There is no other way of receiving the Holy Spirit, although we read about someone called Simon who tried. Acts 8:18-19, “When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. “Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”” As we read on in Acts 8 we see how he received correction for his erroneous demands.

There are many references to “water” in a spiritual sense in the Bible. For example, Isaiah wrote, “With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!” (Isaiah 12:3). And there is Isaiah 58:11, “The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring”. Once before, Jesus mentioned living water. To the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well He said, “ … If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water” (John 4:10).

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God, and He brings to our spirits all the benefits that physical water brings to our bodies. So just as our bodies need water to survive, so does our spirits. But the “living water” for our spirits is alive and active, not stagnant and dead. It refreshes us and satisfies our thirst and leads us to eternal life. The “living water” within us refreshes those around us as well, as we make available God’s gift in our families and communities. And every day we can request a fresh infilling of the “living water”, the Holy Spirit, to help us face into the day and its challenges. 

Father God, we pray for a fresh supply of this living water, for the refreshment of our spirits in this dry and dusty land. Thank You. Amen.

Trained by God

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked. So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me.””
John 7:14-16 NLT

There came the day when Jesus finally appeared in the Temple, and John recorded that He “began to teach”. As a reminder, Jesus appeared publicly half way through the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a week long festival of thanksgiving to God, for the harvest just completed and the feeding of the Israelite slaves in the wilderness so many years before. It was an essential event for the Jews, particularly the male contingent, so Jerusalem would have been mobbed by huge crowds. John also recorded that the “people were surprised when they heard Him” because of His lack of training. 

What was there about Jesus’ teaching that made the people think that way? There were probably several reasons. Perhaps His style of presentation was different to what the people were used to. His teaching material, though Scripturally based, would have had a different interpretation to that of the conventional text books. The miraculous signs he used to support His message would have wowed the crowd but, again, suggest to them that He had not been trained in the traditional Jewish ways. Jesus was honest and said it as it was. He made no attempt to woo the crowd with benign platitudes and a false praise. He regularly attacked the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, even on one occasion saying that their father was not God but the devil. When they tried to trap Him with difficult questions, He confounded and silenced them. Jesus told the crowd that, like it or not, His message “is not [His] own; it comes from God who sent [Him]”.

Most church ministers, as we pilgrims know, are trained in some theological college or other. The people who are training for the ministry become acquainted with the culture and teaching of their particular denomination, learning the liturgies and Biblical interpretations. But there is a better way through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Jesus told His disciples that He will lead us into all truth – ”When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). That’s all Jesus did. He told the people what His Father in Heaven told Him to say. We pilgrims have a duty to consult with God over what we should do and say. His Words may or may not agree with the teaching of our denominations but by being soundly Bible based then they will be truth. The words Jesus said cut across cultural sensitivities to declare and teach the truth after generations of misinterpretations or even untruths supposedly based on the Hebrew Bible. The truths we declare will increasingly impact the cultures in which we live, because they expose sin and evil, never a popular subject in a society without a relationship with God.

We pilgrims had embraced the Gospel, repented of our sins, and believe in Jesus 100%. We speak as God directs. There is no other way.

Dear Father God. We reach out to You today, trusting in You to lead and guide us through the minefields of life. Only You have the words of eternal life. Thank You. Amen.

Spirit and Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” …  Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.) Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.””
John 6:58, 61-65 NLT

A lifetime of teaching about the Law had conditioned the early disciples into a mindset that was unable to accept any other teaching that might contradict their world view. While Jesus was performing miracles they were quite happy to be around Him, and the teaching He had so far given them, though different and challenging, was not so far away, perhaps, from the teaching they had received. And so they rationalised in their minds any minor differences as perhaps something mis-heard or misunderstood. Of course, there may have been some things that they were not entirely sure about, but they parked them in a corner of their minds, with the hope that all would become clear one day. But then Jesus started teaching about His body and blood. They couldn’t procrastinate any longer and they had to decide what they were going to do. Jesus’ divinity was sealed and out in the open when he said to them that He would return to His Heavenly home one day. And then there was Jesus’ statement that challenged their beliefs that eternal life would only be achieved by keeping the Law. But Jesus said, “Human effort accomplishes nothing”. 

In those days, the Holy Spirit had not been given – He didn’t come until the Day of Pentecost a few years later. So the Holy Spirit within them would not have been an experience they were aware of. So when Jesus said “the Spirit alone gives eternal life” it was one more anomaly that confused their thinking. So they complained. In their minds they had much to complain about, because Jesus was communicating a different message to what they were accustomed to, and what He said to them eclipsed the miraculous signs. 

Jesus doesn’t have any time for complainers. We pilgrims too will hear Biblical teaching that we will not fully understand. In fact, there is much in the Bible that we won’t understand until we get to Heaven. But then everything will become clear. The clouds will part and all will be revealed. Jesus gave some hard teaching that offended the Jewish mindset, but rather than believe in Him, and have faith that He was the Son of God, as He said, the disciples complained. The simple statement from Jesus that “the Spirit alone gives eternal life” was overlooked in the flurry of complaints. 

We pilgrims have an experience with God that includes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In His great sermon on the Day of Pentecost, a Spirit-filled Peter said, “ … 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). Receiving the Holy Spirit is an integral part of our salvation experience. He is a gift from God, given to those who have repented of their sins, who have committed to follow Jesus, and who have been baptised. Sometimes we can’t help but feel sorry for those confused complainers around Jesus, but then, with the Son of God right there in front of them, and confronted by His miraculous signs, they surely should have stayed the course. Thankfully some did, and we will read about them later.

Perhaps we pilgrims will find something to complain about when we hear a message we don’t fully understand or even agree with. But the overriding message is confirmed, or otherwise, through the Holy Spirit within us. He brings life to our spirits while we are here on Planet Earth, and after that eternal life with God will be our experience. When we are confused or challenged, we mustn’t complain, but instead turn our eyes to the One who had called us to a life with God, our wonderful Saviour Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus. Only You have the words of eternal life. We worship You today. Amen.

God the Teacher

Posted on by korgrocker

“But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)”
John 6:43-46 NLT

In John 6:45, Jesus quoted a verse from Isaiah 54, “I will teach all your children, and they will enjoy great peace” (Isaiah 54:13). This verse was in the middle of a prophecy about Jerusalem and its future, a future that we are yet to see, because of its End Times significance. In his prophecy, Isaiah talked about Jerusalem being rebuilt extensively with precious stones, a place where God Himself will teach His children, a place of peace with a secure government, and a place without enemies. A Utopian vision for the hard pressed Jews of that time in Israel’s history. And we can compare this new build Jerusalem with Revelation 21, where we read, “So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:10-11). The Jews were well aware of this eschatological theme so the more Biblically astute amongst them would associate what Jesus was saying with that wonderful time they yearned for, when God lived with His people and taught them all they needed to know. 

Jesus told His listeners in our John 6 verses that all those who come to Jesus, believing in Him, will be raised up on the last day. Resurrection was a well known concept to the Jews of Jesus’s day, just as it was to the Old Testament saints like David, who wrote, “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Psalm 16:10-11). So Jesus’s statement that God will teach His children would have been associated with their expectation of a wonderful eternal life spent with their glorious Father and Teacher, God Himself. 

But Jesus, later in His ministry, told His disciples that when He had “gone away”, God would send the Holy Spirit. We read, “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 14:26). So we can be assured that God is available to teach us even today, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us pilgrims. God’s Spirit quietly whispering His words of truth, teaching us what we need to know, and reminding us of the teachings that are recorded in our New Testament, the words of Jesus Himself. 

How are we pilgrims taught by God? Through prayer, through reading the Bible, through the preaching and exposition of God’s Word, and through the Holy Spirit within us. There are no other ways except through Jesus. But back to our verses in John 6. Jesus extended an invitation to all His listeners, to believe in Him, and that invitation is still with us today in this season of God’s grace. John 14:6, “Jesus told [Thomas], “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no other way to eternal life other than through Jesus. 

Dear Lord Jesus. You are the only way to the Father, God Himself. You provided a timeless invitation to all, to come to You and follow You. The narrow path before us is long and windy, strewn with obstacles and difficult to navigate. But as we follow You, we are assured that the way You provide will bring us into God’s presence. We are so grateful. Amen.

Crossing the Lake

Posted on by korgrocker

“That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum.”
John 6:16-17 NLT
“Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.”
Matthew 14:22-23 NLT

There are slight differences between Matthew’s and John’s account of what happened after the miraculous feeding of five thousand men and their families. John gave us the facts, and Matthew put in a few extra details. But such differences bring the Gospels to life, because they typically provide genuine witness statements. In a court of law, different people, witnesses, will provide different perspectives of an event, building a picture for the court’s benefit.

But the next part of Jesus’ ministry was over on the Western side of the Sea (or Lake) of Galilee. He had accomplished all that His Heavenly Father had asked Him to do for the people East of the Northern part of the Sea. They had heard His message, seen miraculous signs, but it was now up to them. It is the Holy Spirit who brings a change in people’s lives, and He was soon to come to the world, after Jesus had departed on the Day of Ascension. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me” (John 16:8-9). Those people would have made the journey back to their homes, stomachs full, minds buzzing with all they had seen and heard. Spiritually elated, they returned home to find the same hard and difficult way of life that they had had before. As we pilgrims know, after every Sunday there is always a Monday morning.

As the disciples started the journey back to Capernaum in an open boat with oars, there was nothing unusual there that they hadn’t done many times before. They were probably wondering why Jesus wasn’t going with them, but perhaps assumed He had some other business to attend to and would join them in a week or two. Jesus did have some very important business on His agenda – spending time with His Heavenly Father in prayer. And it wasn’t a short prayer at all because “night fell” while He was up in the hills on His own. In a small way I can relate to praying with a natural environment all around me. In the countryside around my home in the West of Fife, it is sometimes very quiet and deserted, especially early in the morning. God’s wonderful creation is all around and, somehow, it provides an altar before God better than any church building. I find myself worshipping God with Him all around me, bringing answers to prayer, comfort and assurance when needed, and a confirmation that in this new day, God is still on His throne. 

Jesus instructed His disciples to cross the lake. There was work to do on the other side. But I’m reminded that we pilgrims have work to do as well. Are we still on the Eastern part of our Seas, or have we heard the voice of God telling us to “cross the lake”? Life, as I have come to experience, is full of different “seasons” in God’s plan for us. I know people who are still in a church when God has told them to move on to another. We must always ask ourselves the question, in prayer, where God wants us to be, and what he wants us to do. And listening ears will hear answers that might frighten or surprise us. But with God behind a new season, excitement in the Spirit is guaranteed.

Father God. You have many plans for Your people. Please quicken our ears to hear Your voice so that we are always walking in Your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jesus’ Authority

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.)”
John 6:8-10 NLT

There were many people in that crowd. John recorded that there were five thousand men, so we can perhaps multiply this number by as much as four to obtain an estimate of the number of men, women and children, present. These were all people mostly from the surrounding towns and villages, and they had all come to see Jesus, the miracle worker sent by God. We don’t know how far they had travelled, but it was sufficient for Jesus to be concerned about their return journeys. What were these people expecting from Jesus? Was it to be entertained? Perhaps they were attracted, as people are today, to something “magic” (although of course there is nothing remotely similar between a deception and Jesus’ miracles). Did the people genuinely want to hear more about God and His Kingdom? Were they sick and wanted to ask Jesus to heal them? Or were they just curious and had nothing else on that day? Probably all of the above, but regardless, here they were in Jesus’ presence, and as Andrew noted, they made up a “huge crowd”. In Mark 6:34, there is a similar account of what happened that day, and we read, “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things” (Mark 6:34). 

The next thing that happened was that Jesus asked the disciples to do a bit of organising. “Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred” (Mark 6:39-40). Just a small point, but it once again illustrates how Jesus planned carefully what He was about to do. There was no point in having a large crowd of people milling around. Children chasing each other and parents getting stressed wondering where they were. So, knowing where everyone was made sure that no-one was missed in the food distribution that was about to commence. But perhaps it was significant that the people obeyed what Jesus asked them to do. I have heard conference organisers describe the problem of getting people to do something together at a corporate event like herding cats. People tend to be independent and often uncooperative and can have a ”who is he telling me what to do” attitude. So to get everyone to sit down together in regimented groups was almost a miracle in itself. The Gospel writers don’t say what the expectations of all the people in the crowd were when they sat down, but they had probably come to realise that with Jesus around, miracles happen. 

That’s the issue though. With Jesus still around today through the Holy Spirit, what are our expectations? And because the Holy Spirit lives within us, surely we pilgrims can be personally involved with those expectations. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). A challenging verse, but, nevertheless, what are we hoping to accomplish in God today? The God who fed a bunch of slaves for forty years, or, through His Son, a huge crowd sitting on grassy slopes on the Eastern side of Lake Galilee, can also do amazing things through us, can’t He? But will we allow Him to? Hmmm…

Dear Father God. It is so humbling to know and experience Your wonder-working power in our lives. We pray for the opportunities to do Your works as we go about Your business here on earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Over the Sea

Posted on by korgrocker

“After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)”
John 6:1-4 NLT

As written in the previous chapter in John’s Gospel, Jesus had been in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish Feasts, and while there He had healed a paralysed man lying next to the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus’ instructions to the healed man were recorded in John 5:8, “Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”” The Jewish leaders took exception at the healed man doing work on the Sabbath (they considered that carrying a mat was “work”) and this initiated a conversation between the hostile leaders and Jesus, where He explained His authority and mission. We now move on into John chapter 6, where we find that Jesus had travelled back northward to Galilee and then across the Sea of Galilee to a more remote region on the other side. He did this because, as we find out later, He probably wanted some peaceful quality time with His disciples. But the crowds kept following Him. They were huge crowds, John wrote, made up of people wanting to see the miracles of healing that Jesus was committing. 

Jesus had become a celebrated figure to the people in Galilee. Imagine the popular music stars of today, followed around by adoring fans and the newspaper photographers, never able to get any time on their own. Followed to their gigs. Followed to their hotels. Never a let up and never any privacy. But unlike the pop stars of today, Jesus never turned anyone away. Healing the sick was not the only reason why Jesus was in the Holy Land at that time. He knew His time on earth was not going to be very long, and He was desperate to train up the young men who were His disciples. So He climbed a hill with them, and we read that he “sat down with his disciples around him”. In those days Rabbi’s sat down to teach their disciples.

Matthew 4:23,25, “Jesus travelled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. … Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River”. This was perhaps Matthew’s account of what John was recording in his Gospel. But Matthew continued with, “One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them” (Matthew 5:1-2). Helpfully, Matthew recorded what Jesus taught about and we can read the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7.

We pilgrims also have a mission here in our societies and nations. The Good News about Jesus and His love and saving grace, must be shared with those around us. And in the Great Commission we are told to make disciples. Not of us, or course, but of the wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is unlikely that huge crowds will be following us, but it is quite likely that distractions will try and pull us away from what we should be doing. Things like extra shifts at work, or lots of emails. Perhaps it is the golf course tugging us away from our mission. But whatever it is, we must be self disciplined just as Jesus was. But Jesus never stinted having quality time with His Father in Heaven and often He arose early to go out on His own to spend time in prayer. 

Do we pilgrims prioritise spending time in prayer and reading God’s Word in the Bible? For me it has to be early in the morning as otherwise the pressures of the day invade my personal space and it becomes too late. Jesus was in constant communication with His Father, and through that received guidance and spiritual sustenance for His mission. We pilgrims need to be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit who resources us for the day ahead and leads us into all truth. and as we listen to what He has to say, perhaps the day before us will become less of a hassle than we otherwise would have expected.

Dear Father God. We thank You for all Your resources and encouragement. We pray again today for more of the life-giving water of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.