Finding Freedom Through the Holy Spirit

Posted on by korgrocker

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, soon after being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He returned to the village of Nazareth, where He grew up. In the synagogue, He was handed the scroll of Isaiah the prophet, and after unrolling it for a bit, He found the Scripture, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.” (Luke 4:18-19). We then read His comment on this verse, “Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”” (Luke 4:21). His message was at first well received, but things turned ugly, because the people in that village were offended by what He said, and we read that they “ …  forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way” (Luke 4:29-30). The villagers in Nazareth were unable to accept that Joseph’s son, the lad who used to work in the carpenter’s workshop, was now making claims about His mission and person, claims that seemed to them even Messianic in their content. Jesus correctly pointed out to them that “no prophet is accepted in his own hometown”. But that did not diminish His claim that He had come to bring freedom to the people of His day, people who were enslaved by sickness, physical and mental illnesses and disabilities, disease and spiritual oppression. This was to be a time when Heaven came to touch earth, a time when God’s grace opened a door into a new world of possibilities, starting with eternal life in God’s presence. But entry through the door, described by Jesus as being a “narrow gate” later, would be accomplished by believing in Him. 

After the Ascension, Jesus had gone, returning to the presence of His Father in Heaven. That would have been the end of His visitation of grace, except Jesus left the disciples with the message that He would send the Holy Spirit. “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” (John 15:26). Over the page, there is more that Jesus said, “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. 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’” (John 16:13-15). Jesus’ departure was, at first, a disaster for the disciples, but everything changed on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on all those present in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Jesus was true to His word.

We pilgrims have a mission: to testify about Jesus, His message of grace and love, and to do that, we have the Holy Spirit helping us. Jesus is still present through the Spirit of God, bringing freedom to the captives. As people realise who Jesus is, what He has done for them, and open their hearts to receive His message, the veil that obscured their thinking falls away, and they find that they are free at last from their sinful lives. But it gets better. Paul wrote that “the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image”. 

In this age, Heaven is still close to earth, separated only by a single door. It’s open and welcoming. It contains the Way of truth, the Way into God’s presence for eternity. A door that leads to a life of joy. The problem is that most people cannot see it. There is no door there, they say as they wander through life with their spiritual eyes firmly closed. But the door won’t be there for much longer, because Jesus will be returning “soon” to wind up the final chapter of the story of God’s grace and mercy. So, as I have written many times before, we pilgrims have to get His message of grace over to the dying world around us. We pray for contact with people today, people on the “broad way that leads to destruction”, so that we can tell them about the Spirit of Jesus, who brings freedom.

Dear Heavenly Father. Help us, we pray, to fulfil Your mission here in our age, our generation. Open hearts and minds to hear Your glorious Gospel of freedom. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Right Paths

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
Psalm 23:1-4 NLT

David wrote that the Lord guided him along “right paths”. Of course, in the pastoral context of this Psalm, there would be paths in the wilderness that would be far from ideal, and at the end just more desert or, at best, poor quality grazing. These would have been the “wrong paths”. The shepherds in those days relied on their local knowledge to find all the best of the “green meadows” and the “peaceful streams” necessary to assuage the sheep’s hunger and thirst. It was a very different environment in David’s day, because the sheep knew that they had to follow the shepherd along the “right paths” to find pasture. If they didn’t then they would soon lose their way and get lost in a dry and dusty landscape, where they wouldn’t survive for long. Here in the UK sheep are mostly kept in fenced-in fields and don’t need leading anywhere unless the farmer moves them to another field, but then it is a case of herding rather than leading. 

Speaking to the Pharisees and other religious leaders, and comparing them to sheep, Jesus said, “But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:26-27). His allegory highlighted the difference between two flocks of sheep – those that believed in Jesus, and had a relationship with Him, and those who didn’t because they followed a different shepherd. Earlier in John 10, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15). If asked which shepherd they followed, the Pharisees would have said God Himself, but their “God” was different to the One who was the only true God, the One from Heaven Jesus, Himself. The Pharisees had constructed their own god, starting with the Law and the prophets but then adding and subtracting the bits as they thought best. But as Jesus said to them, “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Luke 11:42). They had replaced a relationship with God with legalism, relying on their own strength. But before we become all smug and climb up to the moral high ground, Christians can be legalistic as well. They say all the right words, they turn up for the Sunday services and warm the pews. But they fit the prophecy from Isaiah 29:13, “And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote“.

David’s statement that the Lord “guides him along right paths” suggests that there must also be “wrong paths” to be followed, with guidance being supplied by someone else claiming to lead the sheep. Jeremiah warned about false shepherds, “What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people—the shepherds of my sheep—for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for,” says the Lord. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to these shepherds: “Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction. Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them” (Jeremiah 23:1-2). Today, the danger of being lured away by false shepherds remains. Cults spring up, led by men and women who claim a special word or revelation from God (for example the JW’s), and the sheep are fooled by seemingly logical and good-sounding arguments, to their ultimate detriment. But as Jeremiah wrote, the false shepherds, driven by evil, will come to judgement with a verdict that, for them, will not be a good ending.

The Jews were comfortable with the idea that they were God’s chosen people and that He was their Shepherd. But then Jesus came along, claiming to be the Good Shepherd, the Gate to the sheepfold, offering salvation only through Him. And then He said, “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16). That would really have upset the Jews, because what could He have meant other than the Gentiles, you and me? Jesus was a divisive Figure in His day, and still is today, with many people rejecting His claim to be the only Good Shepherd.

But back to the “right paths”. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “ ... I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. John 10:9, “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures“. There is no other way to Heaven, to salvation and eternal life., except through Jesus. Only He is the “right path” and any other claim by any other religion or faith is the “wrong path”. There is only one place to which “wrong paths” will lead … but we don’t want to talk about that!

Dear Lord Jesus. We proclaim to all who will listen that there is only one way to eternal life with God, and that is You. Not Mohammad. Not Buddha. Not Hari Krishna. But only You. Thank You that before the world was even created, You had Your hand upon us. 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.