Jesus Figuratively

Posted on by korgrocker

“I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.”
John 16:25-27 NLT

Why did Jesus use parables or figurative language when He spoke to those around Him? Apart from the fact that this was a common form of communication in those days, and has been used in one form or another ever since, the use of illustrations in the way that Jesus did somehow made events and situations easier to remember. Even humorous examples today, using figurative language, like, “That comment landed like a lead balloon” or “He’s as useful as a chocolate teapot” somehow convey a meaning far beyond what would otherwise be recorded as “That was an inappropriate comment”, or “He’s useless”. A good example in book form is The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, a book rich in hidden meanings and allegorical language. 

Jesus often used parables to illustrate a point that He was making. Although there are about thirty five parables in the Gospels, a good example is the Parable of the Soils (or Sower), that we find in Matthew 13. Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of people so He borrowed a boat and taught the people who were standing on the shore. In Matthew 13:3, we read, “He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds“. And He ended the parable, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” (Matthew 13:9). ‭‭And that really illustrates the point of figurative language and messages in the form of parables. Those with spiritual “ears” would understand, but those who had little interest or just didn’t “get it” would miss the point. 

The disciples asked Jesus why He used parables and we find His answer in Matthew 13:11-12, “He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them“. Imagine today, if we asked someone to read the Parable of the Soils, someone who had had no previous church or Biblical exposure and was without any understanding of spiritual matters. How would they respond? Some would understand but many wouldn’t. There are sadly many around us in our societies who lack spiritual ears, so what would they make of this Parable? If they have the listening ears that Jesus referred to then they would understand. The Holy Spirit works in amazing and enlightening ways, but many would cast aside what they had read and instead would move on to deal with, what they would consider, more important matters. 

Jesus had used figurative language to describe His person and work. Examples would include His seven “I Am” statements comparing Himself to bread, light, a gate, a shepherd, resurrection and life, the way, the truth and the life and a vine. These figures of speech were hard for the disciples to understand while Jesus was with them. In Mark 4, Jesus quoted a verse from Isaiah 6:9-10, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing“. 

But although puzzled, even confused, at the time, there was going to come a time when the disciples would understand these allegories, and the figurative language. This time arrived following His death, burial and resurrection and with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today, we pilgrims are those who understand the parables because we have Holy Spirit within us, the One who leads us into all truth. So before we reach for the keyboard so that we can consult Mr Google, instead we should go to the Source of the parables Himself, our Lord and Master Jesus. 

Dear Father God, the Source of all truth. Through Jesus You alone are the One who can bring spiritual light into our secular world. We are so grateful. Amen.

Robbing the Joy

Posted on by korgrocker

“So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.”
John 16:22-24 NLT

We need to start with a definition of joy. Most people use it as a synonym for happiness but there is a difference. Both joy and happiness are emotional experiences, but it is the root of this experience, the context of where it comes from, that matters. Jesus wasn’t referring to a source of happiness that comes from a pleasurable activity. He was referring to a joy that comes from the relationship the disciples had with Himself and their Heavenly Father. And such a relationship produces a joy that is impervious to the trials and sorrows we experience in this world. The Psalmist, David, wrote, “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Psalm 16:11).

Jesus referred to “abundant joy” in our verses today. John 10:10 reads, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly“. The word “abundant”, describing joy and life, truly describes a counter-cultural experience far beyond anything our secular world can find. A joy that even in some way is detached from society around us. A joy that never left the early Christians as they faced martyrdom in the Roman amphitheaters, prisons and on crosses of torture. A joy that even today seems to elevate us pilgrims above the trials and tribulations of life. A joy that James wrote about in James 1:2, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy”. Paul also wrote about this joy in Romans 5:3, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.”

What is there that could rob us pilgrims of this joy, the abundant joy experienced by those early Christians, and available to all believers everywhere? Our enemy the devil will soon put his finger on any weak point that would bring us down. But even though he is still the god of this world, he was defeated by Jesus Christ at Calvary. The devil’s days are numbered and one day he will find himself in a place of total darkness, created for him and his demonic angels. But in the meantime, we remember the words of Paul about Jesus, “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

We pilgrims are living in the light of Jesus’ victory. Through Him we continue to live a life of joy, and one day our joy will be complete in Jesus’ presence. And we remember the words in Nehemiah 8:10b, “ … Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for Your sacrifice at Calvary, giving us the opportunity to live a life of joy. Amen.


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You Must Testify

Posted on by korgrocker

“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 you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.”
John 15:26-27 NLT

The word “testify” appears twice in these verses, once associated with the Holy Spirit and the other time with Jesus and His disciples. Everything they needed to know about Jesus after He had gone would be revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, who would “come” to them “from the Father”. But just a few short years before, something happened on the shores of the Galilean Sea that would have far reaching consequences, not just for those concerned, but for the world ever since. Those early disciples are long dead but their legacy lives on in successive generations of believers. Mark 1:16-17, “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!””. Just a little further along the shore Jesus found James and John and we read, “He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men” (Mark 1:20). Did those four men have any clue about would happen over the next three years or so‭‭? Their world was turned upside down but they never turned away from Jesus. But here was their Master saying to them and the others, “you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.” 

And testify about Jesus they did. On the same day that the Spirit fell on those gathered in that Upper Room, on the first Day of Pentecost, Peter testified about Jesus, “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know” (Acts 2:22). And Peter’s last recorded words were, “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). The last verse in the Bible was spoken by the Apostle John, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people” (Revelation 22:21). Those early disciples, who had “been with [Jesus] from the beginning of [His] ministry” never stopped testifying about Jesus, fulfilling Jesus’ wishes in these last hours of His life.

We pilgrims, by extension, must also testify about Jesus. The Holy Spirit dwells within all truly born again believers and they too benefit from His testimony about Jesus. At every opportunity we must share how Jesus gave His life to save everyone, and in the process we testify how that made a difference to us. In John 1:4-7, we read, “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony”. John the Baptist was the first testifier about Jesus. He realised who the Light was and he testified about Jesus “so that everyone might believe”. 

Paul wrote, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. … But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke”” (2 Corinthians 4:7, 13). We faith-filled pilgrims may feel totally inadequate for the task of testifying but regardless we must speak the words of Jesus at every opportunity. Why? Because Jesus asked us to.

Lord Jesus. Because of Your grace and love what else can we do other than speak out our testimony of faith. Please lead us to the people You want to hear it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

No Excuse

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. … They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfils what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’”
John 15:18, 22-25 NLT

The first Advent had far-reaching consequences for the Jewish nation and for the world, and are still reverberating around the world to this day. Jesus came to Planet Earth with His teaching, His miracles, and His claim to be God’s Son. But there was a problem. In John 1:10-11 we read, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him“. And worse than rejection, Jesus was hated, and by association, every believer in Jesus has been hated as well. Isaiah could see in the Spirit what was going to happen. He wrote in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care“. But Jesus never looked back, mourning the “what could have been”. He looked ahead to the awful day when those who had heard his teaching and had seen His miracles would be standing before Him, stuttering out some feeble excuse. Stand in the shoes for a moment of someone who was in the crowd shouting out, “Crucify Him!” What will they say before the Man on the Great White Throne? Or how about being someone who Jesus spoke to personally but they still rejected Him? Imagine their horror when Jesus said to them, “I remember you …”. Jesus will say to them that they have no excuse for their sin.

Before we pilgrims feel that we are off the hook because we weren’t around two thousand years ago, what Jesus did and said was timeless. The vivid nature of the Gospel accounts, backed up by the rest of the New Testament, eliminates any excuses we might try to offer in mitigation for our sins. But we wouldn’t want to live in our sins, would we? Our new birth into God’s Kingdom provided a remedy for our sins and put us into a place of right standing before Jesus. And the verdict from the Throne will be, “Not guilty!” 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. 

Superficially, we could perhaps think Jesus was puzzled and perplexed by the response from His fellow Jews. In spite of everything He had done, He said that the people, “still hate me and my Father”. But He knew this would happen and he quoted a prophesy from Psalm 39, “They hated me without cause”. And so it is today. Recently the church I attend put out some evangelistic leaflets in the neighbourhood around where we meet. One hate-filled response was received via social media asking us not to put any such literature again through his door. People still hate Jesus today. There is no reason why, we think, until we are reminded that Jesus confronted the sins of mankind, but with a solution that would provide right-standing before God. However, and inexplicably, people generally prefer to live in their sins rather than be set free from their consequences. 

We pilgrims carry on spreading the Good News about God and His saving grace. God’s love is there for all to experience. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvellous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”.  It is indeed!

Father God, there is no excuse that will mitigate our sin-laden guilt before You. But, thanks to Jesus, we have a remedy for all our sins. Thank You. Amen.

Hated Disciples

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
John 15:18-19 NLT

Isn’t it strange, that the disciples, who did so much in those early days and years as they went around preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, would end up being hated. Men who anxiously and diligently tried to connect people with a loving God who wanted all men to join Him. Paul wrote this to Timothy, “ …  God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. … ” (1 Timothy 2:3-6 extracted), and John 3:16-17 deserves a mention, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him“. Our God, who has given more for mankind than we can ever get our minds around, ends up being hated, and His followers as well. Men and women, who ever since, have tried to share the wonderful news about Jesus with so many but instead have been rejected, hated, and even killed. What would an alien think, looking on from outer space, at a situation where human beings hated the very One who created them, and in the process hated those who tried to reconcile them to their loving Heavenly Creator God. They would look, I’m sure, for another cause of such irrational behaviour.

Our helpful alien would perhaps find another life source that was causing the problem. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God”. Blinded minds. Minds filled with devil-inspired strange thoughts and ideologies. Minds filled with lies and wickedness. Minds reprogrammed to hate God and anyone who wants to acknowledge Him and follow Him. Minds that are even repudiating the very consequences of their God-denial, boastfully rejecting even the very concept of judgement for their sins and wickedness, a judgement that has to take place in our moral universe. And in it all the believers in God, lovingly fronting up His gracious presence, are hated, despised and even killed. History is punctuated by many Christian martyrs, murdered for the “crime” of believing in God and trying to help others to believe in Him too. 

We pilgrims must indeed face into the sober fact that we are hated by those around us, to varying degrees, and depending on where we live. We dare to be different, following a different path, refusing to bow our knees to different faiths, beliefs and ideologies. We tramp on in our life journey, taking every opportunity to live in God’s Kingdom, following His ways, and turning our backs on a world that doesn’t know Him. We are beacons of hope in a hopeless world. We season our communities by our presence and our willingness to show others a better way. Our faith will hopefully not lead to a premature death, but it will impact our standing in a worldly pecking order in our jobs and communities. We stand up against the issues of the day such as abortion, gender, conversion therapy, and similar legislation that opposes and encroaches on the sanctity of God’s order. And in the process we are arrested, hassled and hated. Not for us pilgrims the compromise adopted by some denominations to accept secular values instead of maintaining the purity of the faith.

Jesus warned His disciples about what was to come, but we read what he said in John 16:33, “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”. Whatever we experience in this life will be of no consequence when we stand before Jesus and hear those words, “Well done …” What a God! What a Saviour! 

Thank You Lord, the One who made being children of God possible. Amen.

Masters and Slaves

Posted on by korgrocker

“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:15-17 NLT

In Jesus’ day, slaves were commonplace. The richer members of His society usually had one or more slaves doing the menial jobs in a household, even to the extent of bringing up the master’s children. A slave was considered the owner’s personal property, and essentially had no rights. They could even be killed with impunity by their owners. The word “slave” can also be translated “servant” – in the Amplified version of John 15:15 we read, “I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father”. ‭‭But slave or servant, we get the picture of Jesus, the Master, and His disciples, who were His servants doing a three year apprenticeship, learning all about God and His Kingdom. And rather than have notes to refer to when they needed a prompting, they had the Holy Spirit within them. “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 14:17). In Acts 4:13 we read about how effective the Holy Spirit’s presence was in their lives, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognised them as men who had been with Jesus“.

Paul started his Roman epistle with “This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News”. Peter started his second epistle with, “This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour”. The first Apostles were totally sold out to their Master, Jesus Christ. They had no agenda of their own, other than to do His will. Whatever it took. Regardless of the consequences.

Jesus, though, at the end of their apprenticeship, regarded His disciples as His friends and no longer as slaves or servants. Because He had told them everything that His Father had asked Him to tell, the disciples had finished the course. And now they were appointed to go and produce “lasting fruit”. By extension, we too are commissioned to “go” and produce lasting fruit. Fruit in our lives and also in the lives of others. Peter and John were recognised by the Jewish leaders “as men who had been with Jesus”. Would we pilgrims receive the same recognition? But whatever, we cannot claim to be Jesus’ disciples unless we too could put our commitment is a position that makes us His servants.

Father God. We confess our commitment to You, this day and every day, with a grateful heart full of love. Amen.


Love and Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
John 15:12-14 NLT

‭‭In an earlier chapter in John, Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” (John 13:34). Jesus reminds the disciples of the commandment to love one another, a repetition that emphasises the importance of love. But this is not the emotional or sentimental love that our secular societies favour. To a Christian, this is the agape love that has a cost associated with it. A love that loves the unlovely. A love that goes above and beyond even to the point of sacrificing life for another. A love that a selfish and grasping world doesn’t understand.

In Romans 5:6-8, Paul wrote, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners“.‭‭ Then we read what John wrote in 1 John 3:16, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters”. 

In the case of the early Apostles, all except for John, ended up dying a violent death. So they did literally sacrifice their lives for their fellow believers. And many of the Early Church disciples also died for their faith. We can read about Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7:59-60, “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.” A Spirit-filled man murdered for His faith in Jesus.

But, practically, what does this mean for us pilgrims? We live in a society that would naturally prioritise its own interests before anyone else’s. There is a selfish motivation to grab the last seat on the bus before anyone else can get there. Or jump the queue at a supermarket. The common and motivation question is “What’s in it for me?”. Me, me, me all the time. But agape love is the opposite of all this.

Jesus said to His disciples, and, by extension, to us as well, that they should love others “in the same way I have loved you“. He taught much about love and when asked about which was the greatest commandment, “Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40). In everything we do, we must be motivated by the same love that Jesus has for us.

Dear Heavenly Father. You love us with a love so extravagant it takes our breaths away. Thank You. Amen.

Overflowing Joy

Posted on by korgrocker

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
John 15:9-11 NLT

Most people in our secular societies pursue happiness in hedonistic ways. Through holidays or days out. Through evenings spent with friends. Through the darker ways of alcohol, drugs or sex. But happiness isn’t joy, at least in the way Jesus meant. Jesus told us of the relationship between being obedient to His commandments and with the experience of joy. In the book of Acts we read about the enigma of Paul and Silas in a Philippian jail, backs bruised, feet in the stocks, but able to praise God full of joy because their punishment had come from the obedience of doing God’s will. We can read this story in Acts 16. No happiness there but unlimited joy.

There is an old song based on Isaiah 35:10, “Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness”. The Jewish nation went through many trials in Old Testament times and here we have a picture of the joy, everlasting joy, that would result when God’s people were restored to Jerusalem. And we remember the prophecy of the events of the first Palm Sunday, from Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt“. Joy in the Old Testament accompanied a national event that elevated the people above their circumstance and fulfilled their dreams and hopes. Their subsistence and hard way of life was still there, but joy was always there as well, although often just out of reach and only a dream.

We pilgrims read what Jesus said to His disciples about being obedient to His commandments and remaining in His love, and wonder what that means for us in our 21st Century societies. It is hard going the Jesus way, being obedient to His commands, particularly as so many of them are counter-cultural, in the extreme in some cases. What a difference it would make to world peace if everyone prayed for their enemies, rather than step up their “defence” spending. What a difference it would make if marriage vows were totally honoured until death parted a husband and wife. What would the media report on if there was no crime? But as we stay close to Jesus and keep His commands, we are in fact helping to hold back the forces of darkness and, in the process, experiencing the joy that can only come from Him.

Dear God of Joy. We worship and thank You today. Amen.

Anything?

Posted on by korgrocker

“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 NLT

‭‭What did Jesus really mean when He said, “you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”?Superficially this might be interpreted as making Jesus out as some form of cosmic vending machine, dispensing all sorts of goodies to His followers. But nothing could be further from the truth. Imagine the chaos that would result from two believers in Jesus both asking for opposing weather patterns in the same area at the same time. Mutual exclusives would be irreconcilable. But in the context of these verses, Jesus was speaking about remaining or abiding in Him, the production of fruit, and the consequences for not doing so. 

As we remain in Jesus, keeping in close fellowship with Him, listening to His voice through the Holy Spirit within us, being obedient to His teachings, and working out in our lives the intimacy of a relationship with Him, then we will produce fruit. Spiritual fruit, as we read in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” So, surely Jesus saying that we can ask for anything we want, can only apply to this fruit of the Spirit.

We perhaps also get more light from the previous chapter in John, where Jesus said, “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). The important words are “in my name” and Jesus emphasised this phrase by repeating it twice. “In my name” implies a close and intimate relationship with Jesus such that we will know and understand what His will is, not ours. In our secular world, a policeman will make an arrest “in the name of the law. The name of the person or authority carries weight and influence in our society. Using the name of Jesus in the same way implies that we are acting on His behalf. Jesus went around His part of the world healing the sick, raising the dead and performing miraculous signs, all in the physical realm populated by human beings. As we follow in the Master’s footsteps, such opportunities will come our way as well. We too can do all the things that Jesus did. But I have a suspicion that the “greater works” that Jesus referred to encompass the spiritual realm as well. Perhaps the greatest “work” performed in His name is seeing a person entering the Kingdom of God, a person who has finally decided to believe in Jesus and start his journey of faith.

So we pilgrims need to be careful in asking for anything with the caveat “in His name”. In Romans 12:2, Paul wrote, “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.” We cannot ask until we know what God’s will is for us, and that is then the source of the fruit that brings glory to God.

Dear Heavenly Father. We use the name of Jesus from a position of knowledge and revelation about His will for what we are doing. We know that we will not always get things right. We mess up and get things wrong. But we keep trying to do Your will in our daily lives. Please help us, we pray. Amen.

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Useless Branches

Posted on by korgrocker

“Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.”
John 15:6 NLT

In the natural woods around me, I do not have to walk far before I find a tree branch that has fallen off, and lies mouldering amongst the leaf litter and the plants present on the forest floor. If I look up at the tree from which it fell, I can perhaps see the cause of the schism. Disease or damage has cut off the flow of the nutrient-rich sap, and the branch has withered and rotted until it no longer had the strength to resist the gales, falling to the ground often with a great crash. Skilled gardeners will examine their trees and shrubs, looking for signs of disease, and if they find any, out will come the pruning devices, to remove the offending shoots and branches before they affect the whole plant. 

In Jesus’ spiritual example, He compared Himself as the Source of the life-giving “sap” so necessary for human beings to produce the fruit required of them. Some believers think that this verse, “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned”, means that salvation can be lost. They surmise that anyone, believers who once believed in Jesus and followed Him, but who then turn their back on Him and cut themselves off from His life, can fall into the category of being a “useless branch” and are in danger of hell fire. Such a belief seems logical enough, if this verse is taken in isolation, but others believe that salvation cannot be lost, quoting Scriptures such as John 10:27-28, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me“, providing an assurance of eternal salvation regardless, or so they think. Another text supporting this position is John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. The problem is that some Bible translations interpret the Greek text in this and other similar verses as a once for all event, instead of what was intended, the continuous present tense. As an example, and looking at John 3:16, the text, “everyone who believes in Him” should perhaps be better read as, “everyone who [goes on believing] in Him”. But we are delving rather deeply here. To me the logical situation is as we read in Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame“. Do such people become the “useless branch”Jesus was talking about? I’m sure everyone will have their own view on this.

But we pilgrims are firm believers, remaining in Jesus, feeding on the life-giving spiritual food that has only one Source. And the fruit we produce quietly grows slow and strong, on the only Vine that really matters, Jesus Himself. Yes, we will occasional feel Father God’s sharp knife cutting away the bits of us that are fruitless, but, amazingly, we grow stronger for that. And instead of being in a bonfire of “useless branches” we will instead find ourselves in a much better place one day.

Dear Master Gardener, we don’t like to be pruned but we know it’s necessary as we continue on our journey. We know we are not on our own and we than You for being with us. Amen.