Opinions

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?” The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.””
John 9:17 NLT

If we stood in Mr “Blind-no-more’s” shoes today, who would we have thought Jesus was? After all, we would have just been healed of an incurable condition – blindness – by someone smearing mud over our eyes. No hospital, no medics, no puffs of smoke and flashes of light, no lengthy prayers. No fuss, just a simple instruction to go and wash our faces. We would be confused because something like this just doesn’t happen that way. And to our Western sensitivities, the use of saliva being applied to our eyes is even a bit offensive.

So, if we now move our feet into the Pharisees’ shoes, what would we have thought “about this man who healed” the blind man. Here we are, important men who form the religious court of our day, and who are the ones who interpret the Law of Moses and guide the people. We ensure that the people don’t do anything that offends God and that could be construed as sin, bringing even more divine retribution to the nation. So along comes a Man who preaches a message that the only way to God and gaining eternal life was by believing in Him. And to back His message, He accomplishes amazing miraculous works of healing. But here lies our quandary – if we do say that he is from God, then we have to tear up our rule books and become His disciples. If we say He is not from God, then we have to explain how He does these miraculous signs. And we can’t. And to add to the problem, some of our colleagues are starting to believe in Him.

 Mr “Blind-no-more” was asked for his opinion about the man who healed him. If he had come right out and said the Man was Jesus, God’s Son, and the Messiah the Jews were waiting for, then he would experience the wrath of the Pharisees, and might even be stoned. But he couldn’t just let the matter go, because the Pharisees were demanding an answer. So he picked the middle ground and said Jesus was a prophet. A description that wouldn’t cause him any difficulties, or so he hoped. 

Today, if we did a survey and asked people who Jesus was, we would at best receive a response acknowledging that He was a historical figure who founded Christianity. We might occasionally find someone who confessed that Jesus was their Lord and Saviour. And, increasingly, we might find people who just don’t know, or say He was perhaps a Brazilian footballer or some other sportsman with that name. But if we asked ourselves who Jesus was, then, because we believe in Him, a whole new world opens up. In John 10:9, we read on one occasion what Jesus said about Himself, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” We may not have experienced a miraculous healing like Mr “Blind-no-more”, but we do know that it is only by believing in Jesus that we will find the door that leads into the Kingdom of God. We thank God for the miracles that He does, even today. And because we love Jesus, we go out and invite others to enter the door that leads to eternal life. There is only one door. The other world religions haven’t found it, even though they claim otherwise. 

So back to the question – who is this Man? He is Jesus, the Son of God, and it is only by believing in Him that we will find peace for our souls in this life and forever after. 

Dear Father God. Our opinion of You increases more and more as we journey through our life. We never ceased to wonder about Your amazing works. We worship You today. Amen.

Saviour of the World

Posted on by korgrocker

“Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world.””
John 4:39-42 NLT

Why should people believe in Jesus because of what this woman, someone with perhaps a rather questionable lifestyle, said? Why should exposing her rather sordid past lead to many of the Sychar inhabitants believing in Jesus? In fact the simple statement “He told me everything I ever did!” resulted in Jesus being invited to stay in the village for a further two days. In fact, it was not just a casual invitation – they “begged Him to stay”. And we are told that “many more” heard His message and believed. The short stay however resulted in many believing in Jesus because they got to know Him, and His saving love and grace, for themselves. They were not depending on someone else’s testimony. 

Perhaps the personalities and relational dynamics in the village community were suddenly overturned by the testimony of the woman by the well. They knew of course about her reputation, and she was obviously shunned by the other village women, being forced to draw water from the well when there was no-one else around. So there would have been no surprises in the woman’s message to her fellow villagers – we can perhaps visualise the nods and winks, and comments behind her back. But the fact that a stranger knew, a passer by who stopped at the well for a drink, added impact to the testimony. And we know from a previous verse that she added weight to what she had to say by including, “Could He possibly be the Messiah”? 

But the important message to the Sychar inhabitants is the same today – we introduce people to Jesus by the power of our testimonies. This power was recorded in the Acts account of the early believers, as we read in Acts 4:33, “The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all“. For us pilgrims today, our conversion experiences, articulated in our testimonies, may be the only opportunity people have to hear the Gospel. It is of course possible for people to become Christians by reading the Bible, but the real power emerges when we introduce them to Jesus personally. 

Jesus was, and is, the Saviour of the world. Only He can introduce us to God, and only we can introduce people to Jesus. Our testimonies must be full of the excitement we first experienced when we found that Jesus loved us and died in our place for our sins. The woman at the well was so excited about her encounter with Jesus that she left her water pot behind and rushed into the village to tell someone. Do we communicate the same excitement and conviction when we share with others what the Saviour of the world, Jesus, has done for us? However, if we have lost our first love, then we must do what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches” (Revelation 2:4-5). 

We pilgrims have a message so important that we must tell everyone at every opportunity. Our testimonies of what Jesus as done for us must be communicated, by what we say and what we do, to the people around us, because Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the Saviour of the world. By introducing people to Jesus we show them the way to eternal life. They may not have another opportunity.

Dear Lord Jesus. You said to Your disciples, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no other way into Heaven. We are so grateful for Your grace and mercy. Amen.

Trusting Him

Posted on by korgrocker

“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:8-9 NLT

What Peter wrote to those early Christians living in a far-off corner of what is now modern Turkey was truth indeed. And it is even more true today. We pilgrims have never seen Jesus in the flesh, in the way the early disciples did as he walked and talked with them, and lived with them, in Palestine and the surrounding areas. Yet, as Peter wrote, the early believers, located many miles away from the Holy Land, loved Him, and so do we believers today. It is what faith is all about. We believe in Him, and all the information we can find about Him in the Bible. And because of that we love Him and trust Him. 

There is much in the Bible about Jesus. Prophetic words in the Old Testament. Personal glimpses and records of His teaching and sayings in the New. A Figure emerges of a loving man, compassionate and caring, the very face of God Himself. God came to this planet in human skin and those who followed Him, those He called, were never the same again after He left. The amazing fact is that through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still with us today. He said to His disciples just a few hours before His death, “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. … 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 16:7,13). The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, never left this world, and He lives within all those who love and trust Jesus.

Peter continued that because we trust Him, we “rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy”. Those early Christians were having a hard time and they were experiencing many trials and challenges, being counter-cultural in their societies and communities. But they were filled with joy. Not happiness. The difference is that happiness is an emotional feeling, tossed around by the external factors in our lives, such as what we eat, who we meet, and how we feel. But joy is different, and is based on something deep within us, an inner knowledge that no matter what happens externally, we are ok within ourselves. We are at peace. We are in Christ. 

Peter wrote that there is a reward for trusting Jesus and that is the “salvation of [our] souls”. We believe what Jesus said. We believe that His promises are true. And we trust Him for the outcomes that will happen one day in the future. Jesus said, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2). That’s in the future, but much of Jesus’ teaching applies to today as well. In Matthew 11:28-30 He said, “ … Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light”. John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. The list of promises that Jesus made builds a picture of a God who cares for us and loves us.

Peter concludes these verses today with the thought that we have waiting for us a reward for trusting Him. and that is the “salvation of [our] souls”. Imagine before us a cross roads. Turn left for the paths and ways of the world. Lives without God. Lives dominated by the hedonism and decadence of the sinful societies in which we live. Or turn right, for a life that won’t be easy – Jesus said, ” … Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. …” (John 16:33). And those early believers in the five provinces were finding that out. But all worth it because of the reward that was waiting for them, secure in Heaven. So, fellow pilgrims, where is our security? Where is our treasure stored? Which turning will we take – left of right? There is only one way – the Jesus way.

Dear Father God. Thank You for the joy within us, a joy that can only be found in You. Amen.

Openly Confessing

Posted on by korgrocker

“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.”
Romans 10:9-10 NLT

Paul announces two behaviours in these verses that will lead a hearer to salvation. It is useful to note the emphasis on “will” and “are”. Salvation is a word often used to describe our future relationship with God, free from condemnation and hell. There will be a day when everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body”. Thankfully, those Christians whose names are recorded in the Book of Life will escape an otherwise terrible verdict from the Judge, who will otherwise consign the defendants to a place where they don’t want to go. Jesus knew about such a book, when He said to His disciples, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). More was written by John in his Revelation, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. … Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12,15).

So, we pilgrims have publicly made a confession of our faith, that “Jesus is Lord”. And Paul writes that if we sincerely believe “that God raised [Jesus] from the dead” in our hearts, then we will be saved, at some time in the future. Paul goes on to repeat what he has just written, to emphasise that believing leads to a right standing before God and this, coupled with an open confession, means we are saved. All good? So we stood before the congregation in our churches, perhaps at the time of our baptism, and made an open confession of our belief that Jesus died for us. Some churches call it a testimony. And I’m sure that, when we said it, we meant it. So that means we are saved, and will be saved, doesn’t it? Well, I’m not so sure.

The tense Paul used when he wrote these verses implies a continuing behaviour, not just a once only experience. So perhaps it might be a bit nearer the truth to consider Romans 10:9 as reading, “If you openly go on declaring that Jesus is Lord …” and “go on believing in your heart…”. Just think about it. Imagine the scenario of someone who makes a public confession of their faith in church on a Sunday but then, on the Monday, returns to their old sinful lives, effectively nullifying their testimony. Will they still be saved? This brings us into the “once saved always saved” argument, which is beyond the scope of this blog. I personally believe that through the grace of God we are saved and will be saved, should we confess our sins and believe in our hearts, as Paul wrote. And God, who sees the end from the beginning, sees right into our hearts and knows how sincere we are. However, someone who once made such a confession, no matter how real or otherwise, can also choose to abandon said confession by neglect or downright denial. It’s a matter of their choice, which God, in the end, will honour, no matter how reluctantly. But no-one really knows what will happen when we come before God. Martin Luther is credited with making the following statement, “First, there will be people in heaven I did not expect to be there. Second, there will be people not present in heaven that I was certain would be there. Third is the greatest surprise of all—that I will be there myself!“

There is only one way that we can be saved. In Acts 4:12, we read, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved“. That is why Jesus came to this world. He Himself said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). What Jesus said is totally exclusive. No other adherent of any other religion can be saved, unless they come to Jesus. That is why our mission as pilgrims in this world is so important, and why Christians suffer so much persecution. The devil does not want anyone to find Jesus and believe in Him, but other religions don’t trouble him much.

Today, in our workplaces, our communities, our families, let us declare our faith in God. Our lost and dying world needs to hear our messages of hope. All the other declarations and beliefs people hold, though they may be very important, will not lead to their eternal salvation.

Dear Father. You have ordained us to share what Your Son did for mankind. What a Saviour! You are an amazing God! How can we neglect such an important task? Amen.