Spirit and Life

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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.

Too Hard to Understand

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. … Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” … At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.”
John 6:53-54, 60, 66 NLT

On the way to the synagogue in Capernaum Jesus had made many disciples. These were men (and presumably women) who believed in what He said. They saw His miraculous signs. They heard His wonderful words of grace. They heard Him expound the Scriptures in a way they liked. But then they heard Jesus say things that they struggled to understand. So they ended up leaving Him and they “turned away”. A tragedy for them because they missed the only opportunity of receiving Jesus’ promise of eternal life. There may have been too many problems for these early disciples. Firstly, the concept of eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood from a physical perspective blinded their minds to the spiritual meaning behind His words. Secondly, they perhaps did understand what Jesus was meaning, but the consequent commitment and implication for how they should now live their lives was too great a sacrifice. 

There are always people who are unable to understand, or don’t want to understand, what Biblical teaching says. One day a person might hear a sermon on anger, taking as its text Jesus’ teaching on anger – “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). A naturally angry person might decide that to change their approach to other people who upsets them is too big an ask and they decide they can’t follow teaching like this. So they either rationalise it and continue as they did before, or they leave and find a church where Biblical teaching is less challenging. And they conveniently forget these verses from Matthew. It is easy to follow a Gospel that we agree with and won’t mean we have to change our lives.

The more liberal of Christians will have a relaxed and dismissive approach to some parts of the Bible. For example in Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said some hard words about adultery. “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.“ Of course, this is a very sensitive subject, but it emphasised a principle that Jesus expounded – it is not what we appear to do but what is going on inside of us. So people, particularly men, who may struggle to change their behaviour in this area, may instead choose to disagree or ignore what Jesus said. As pilgrims, do we approach the Bible with reverence and in the knowledge that it is the Word of God and the final arbiter of truth, or do we just take from it the bits that we agree with and ignore the rest, even making up excuses, or changing the meaning, for the contentious verses?

So many of the early disciples in Jesus’ day started to follow Him until His teaching became too difficult for them to follow. I wonder what they did then? But for us pilgrims, we have decided to follow Jesus, come what may. There is no turning back.

Dear Father God. There is indeed no way that we pilgrims will turn our backs on the very One who gave His all for us. We are so grateful. Amen.

Spiritual Food

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 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.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”
John 6:52-59 NLT

John recorded that the people listening to Jesus’ teaching were arguing with each other. This implied that some of them had grasped what He meant, and others, probably the majority, were still living in a physical world. Of course, Jesus was not teaching cannibalism. He was referring to the spiritual food that would be found through a relationship with Him. Flesh and blood, the very essence of who we are, has spiritual connotations as well. We of course know that as we eat meat we will digest it in our stomachs and the nutrients contained within the food will be absorbed into our bodies to provide the energy and the necessary components for a healthy life. There is a similar process with spiritual food, and Jesus is the source of all that our spirits will ever need. As we feed on Him, through His teachings, through God’s Word, through prayer, and so on, our spirits will find all that they need for life, and life that will extend into eternity at that.

Jesus made it clear that for those who depend only on physical foods, like their ancestors depending on manna in the wilderness, there would come a time when they would die. “Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died” (John 6:49). It does not matter what food we consume, even so called super foods, but one day our natural bodies will come to the end of their useful and natural lives. But our spirits will live forever, whether with Jesus or not. For all those who believe in Jesus and follow Him, they will experience eternal life. He said, “But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day”. Later, the Apostle Paul wrote, “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). The alternative for those who don’t believe in Him, and who don’t feed on all the spiritual resources He possesses, is therefore death. But that death will still be somewhere eternal. 

This difficult to understand teaching from Jesus still hangs in the air today, because we live in a season of God’s grace, and His Son’s work continues through the Holy Spirit. We need to see beyond the physical connotations of what Jesus was saying through to the spiritual meaning. And we need to explore in increasing depth what it really means for our spirits to feed on Jesus’ body and blood. Jesus  said that He will raise up all those who have a relationship with Him “at the last day”. This does not mean the last day of the person’s physical life, but the day when all spirits will be resurrected and provided with a physical body. Paul wrote what would happen to believers – “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). And to unbelievers we turn to Revelation 20:5,12, “This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) … I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. 

So the Jews sitting in the pews in the synagogue in Capernaum were arguing. But have we pilgrims never argued with each other about teaching we have heard from a pulpit somewhere? Not often of course, but it does happen, and particularly when there is a new move of God sweeping over His church. But when something potentially contentious emerges in the spiritual domain, we have a simple remedy – turn to Jesus and feed on His body and blood. At such times we will find refreshing and new life for our spirits, and the issues causing the difficulty will fade away.

Dear Lord Jesus. Only You have the words of eternal life. Only You can lead us in the right paths and feed us all the nutrients we will ever need. We worship You today. Amen.

Eat the Bread

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
John 6:47-51 NLT

To the Jews, and most people on this planet, the thought of cannibalism is abhorrent. Feelings of disgust arise as we even reflect on such a thing. But as we unpick the meaning behind Jesus’ words, their importance soon emerges. Jesus told His listeners that He was “the bread of life” and He said that, unlike their ancestors who ate manna in the wilderness but still died, eating His bread would lead to eternal life. So we have the stark comparison between physical and spiritual foods. There are no physical foods that will prolong life to all eternity, even though there are those in certain industries who are trying their hardest to find products that will extend our natural lives even by a year to two. And it is true that a good diet with physical exercise will perhaps increase our life expectancies. Making our natural lives eternal has even become embroiled in fictional stories, such as in the book “She” by the Victorian writer H Rider Haggard. But in reality human beings will eventually die, but we all know that. 

Jesus compared Himself, as the bread from Heaven, with the manna that also came down from Heaven. He was the spiritual food and manna was the physical equivalent. One sustained the soul and the other the body. The Jewish teachers taught about the Scriptures in a detached sort of way. They expounded Biblical truths of course, and probably did so very capably. But Jesus’ teaching was different. He taught the people from a personal viewpoint. He didn’t just teach about spiritual food. He was the spiritual food. 

Jesus, in His claim to be the spiritual food from Heaven, was immediately misunderstood by those with an intransigent mindset that was unable to understand spiritual truths. And it is true today, with most people in Western society neglecting the importance of their spiritual lives. They try their hardest to compensate the yearnings within them with pursuits that might satisfy for a short time, but there is always a morning after the excesses of the night before. Through Isaiah, God said to the people on his day, “Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food” (Isaiah 55:2). 

We pilgrims must pay as much attention to our spirits as we do to our bodies, and through Jesus and His sacrifice at Calvary, a whole new vista opened up for us, taking us right into God’s presence and life with Him forever. So we do not neglect the spiritual food that came down from Heaven. It was so important that Jesus, at the Last Supper, gave His disciples the means to remember His life-giving presence. Luke recorded what happened, and what Jesus said, “He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you” (Luke 22:19-20). And as we remember all that Jesus has done for us, our spirits are refreshed and satisfied with the richest of food. 

Dear Lord Jesus. You are indeed the bread of Heaven, and our gratitude is eternal. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

The Local lad

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?””
John 6:41-42 NLT

Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God was rejected by the people around Him, because they knew His natural parents. They knew that Jesus had lived in Nazareth, growing up like any other Jewish boy in those circumstances and times. They had probably enjoyed the products He made in His carpenter’s shop, window frames, furniture, agricultural implements. But here He is, standing before them, and making the claim that He was the “bread that came down from Heaven”. So the people started to “murmur in disagreement“, as they tried to make sense of Jesus’ claims. On the one hand they had before them the indisputable facts of His miracles, and that He fed them a fish supper on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. But on the other they could not get their minds around His claim to be divine. But Jesus didn’t waver from His message and His mission, and He didn’t hold back from speaking difficult truths.

We don’t know much about the years between Jesus’ birth and closing the door for the last time on His carpenter’s shop, before the start of His public mission. Was Jesus a pious and religious young man, someone who didn’t join in with the drunken revelries, or the laddish behaviour that was probably prevalent in His days, just as it is today? Someone like John the Baptist, who from an early age set Himself apart from his peers? We do know about the episode in the Temple when the twelve-year-old Jesus was found by His parents sitting amongst the religious teachers where we read, ”All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47). But that’s about all, except for one verse at the end of Luke 2, “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all the people”. 

Jesus was well regarded in His community, but what about His claims that He was the “bread that came down from Heaven”? He may have grown up into a well-respected young man but the Son of God? Because we pilgrims are more detached from the culture and society of Jesus’ day we perhaps have less of a problem. We find it easier to accept Jesus as the Person he claimed to be, and we have the benefit of hindsight, knowing how His ministry and mission panned out, knowing how God’s plan for the salvation of mankind came to fruition. But how would we feel if a local lad suddenly started to perform miracles and make divinity claims? 

In our Christian journeys we pilgrims will inevitably meet those who make claims. Such meetings may be in person, but more likely would be through social media posts, extolling the virtues of men and women of God. And occasionally someone will emerge and form a sect, duping their followers with supernatural claims. The Scripture warn us about such people. But Jesus was unique in that no-one else has made the claim that he was the Son of God and has gone on to prove it through astounding miracles and a death and resurrection. There is only one Jesus, and we give Him all the glory today.

Dear Jesus. You are the only One, the only Son of God. You came to this world with a plan for man’s salvation and we praise and worship You today in deep gratitude. Amen.

The Will of God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
John 6:38-40 NLT

Jesus couldn’t have been clearer about His mission. He left His Heavenly home to “do the will of God who sent [Him]”  here on Planet Earth. And twice He said that all those who come to Him, those given Him by God, believing in Him, would be resurrected “at the last day”. The resurrected ones will then enjoy eternal life.

There are those who experience a miserable life riven by illness, deprivation, drugs, or similar, people who say that to go on experiencing such an existence for ever is the last thing that they want. But when God comes to live with His people on the new earth (Revelation 21) we read that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4). Eternal life with God will be a wonderful, fulsome and amazing experience never to be compared with our human natural lives. The Bible clearly states that we will either spend eternity in Heaven or hell, so, at least for me, the choice is a “no-brainer”. The assurance of eternal life is, however, not a choice that can be made when people stand before God on that final and terrible day of judgement. The decision to believe in Jesus, with all that that entails, has to be made while we continue to enjoy God’s season of grace. 

Jesus’ mission was to do the will of His Father. He had no doubts as to what this was, and He set His face steadfastly towards His goal at Calvary, the culmination of His mission. And in the process He would set aside His own will, heavily influenced though it was by His humanity. The degree to which He refused to deviate from those final days in Jerusalem can be found in those moments in the Garden of Gethsemane, which we can read in Matthew 26, “He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine”” (Matthew 26:39). Such was His dilemma, that we read in Luke 22:44, “He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood”. We pilgrims can never even start to imagine what Jesus went through that day, but we bow before Him in worshipful gratitude. What a Saviour!

Are we pilgrims clear about our mission in life? Do we know what God wants us to do? Some believers are called to mission in far off places, and we can read the accounts of many who faithfully laboured for many years amongst needy people. But for most of us the will of God is worked out within our families and communities, schools and workplaces where we are beacons of light in otherwise dark places. So we make the most of every opportunity to share the love of God, and the eternal life that will be the reward for faithful believers. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Again we say before You, What a Saviour! We give You all the glory today. Amen.

No Rejection

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.”
John 6:35-37 NLT

The eternal nature of Jesus’s claim about being the bread of life was largely missed by His listeners on this occasion. His message of eternal life and the miraculous signs that He committed made no difference to the majority of the people of His day. All they were interested in was having the opportunity to receive another free meal. In common with their ancestors, they could not see beyond their immediate physical needs, and, worse, they preferred to continue in their lives of sin. But there was a ray of hope splitting the darkness of rejection – there were people who God had called to His Son’s side, and Jesus said He would never reject them. We know who these people were because they formed the bedrock of the church. The twelve disciples, later to be called Apostles, spent three years with Jesus, being taught by Him and prepared for a lifetime of service. 

But there were others too who joined and followed Him, and who are still coming to Him even today. Men, women and children who have heard the Heavenly call and who proclaim their belief in Jesus. Paul wrote His Ephesian letter with the following two verses near its beginning. “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5). God is a meticulous planner, able to bring about the minutest detail in His creative plans. God didn’t just create the world and then walk away, leaving mankind to get on with living on it. As part of His creation He could see the time when His Son Jesus would walk its paths as a human being, sharing God’s plans with the men and women of His day, and God knew in advance those who would follow His Son, making a choice to respond to the call stirring within them. 

But is this not a contentious thought, that God has a special plan for individual people? Does that not imply rejection of the rest? At the end of the parable of the Great Feast, Jesus made the statement “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). God does not have favourites and there is what some have called level ground at the foot of the Cross. Everyone is called to be part of God’s Kingdom, but only a few make the life changes necessary to become “chosen”. In the Parable I have just referred to, the Master of the banquet sent out invitations to come to the feast, and we read in Matthew 22:10, “So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests”. The story continues with the King meeting all those at the banquet but finding someone not wearing the proper clothes. This was a man who somehow had come to enjoy the occasion but had not made any preparations for life in God’s Kingdom. Sadly, he was still wearing the filthy rags of sin, not realising that there will only be pure and holy people who eat at God’s table.

The message of this Parable was clear. All of mankind have an opportunity to respond to God by believing in His Son, Jesus. But there is then a follow up choice to be made before the belief in Jesus can lead to being chosen as one of His children. The man at the banquet had made no attempt to repent of his sins and come to Jesus, and by doing so replacing his filthy rags with garments whiter than white. Isaiah 1:18-19, ”“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat“”. So we pilgrims ask ourselves, as we look in a mirror reflecting what is inside our souls, what colour are my garments? Red or white? If we make the right choice, to believe in Jesus, then there will be an amazing transformation affecting our clothes. Our seats at the Heavenly banquet will have our names on them, because Jesus will never reject us.

Father God. When we first came to You, our clothes were totally unsuitable for Your Son’s wedding reception, but through Your grace and love, You have dressed us in clothes of white. We worship You today, deeply grateful for Your mercy. Amen.

The Request For a Sign

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ””
John 6:28-31 NKJV

At first sight, this seems to be a disgraceful response to Jesus. ”Give us some proof about Your credentials, and seeing as You claim to be the Son of God, make sure it is a miraculous sign”, was their demand. Those people on the Galilean shore even had the audacity to specify the miraculous sign they were looking for. They suggested that Jesus provided manna, the food that sustained the Israelite slaves through forty years of wandering in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land. In other words, they enjoyed the meal of bread and fish on the other side of the lake but they suggested to Jesus that He kept feeding them, just as their ancestors were in the wilderness. But all Jesus was requesting was that the people believed who He was, a simple response surely, but they knew then, as people know today, that believing in Jesus will require a change in beliefs, behaviour and a different approach to their otherwise sinful lives. Jesus called that change “the work of God”. 

It is doubtful that any number of “signs” would have convinced the people of His day that a belief in Jesus was necessary for their spiritual health and well-being. Seeing the sick healed would have been an entertaining spectacle, especially to those who were not personally involved. Perhaps they thought that miracles had been performed before by the great prophets. Their heritage was steeped in miracles. Manna in the desert. Water from a rock face. Walls tumbling down. Giants slain. Their scriptures contained accounts of many such miracles. So what’s new here might have been their thoughts. But none of those prophets claimed to be divine, as Jesus did.

Jesus was offering the people a relationship with Him. Not a detached gratitude for the miracles, but a pathway through miraculous signs to believing in Him. In another scripture we read, “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?“ (John 7:40-41). Some of the people were convinced about Jesus, acknowledging that He was the Messiah. But did they go on to believe in Him?

There are people today who will engage in a one to one conversation in which they will profess a belief in Jesus. But back in the office, with others around, they lapse back into the ways of those around them. James wrote, “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do” (James 1:6-8). This is a warning to people who say that they believe in Jesus but have yet to make a transition into being a true believer. Miraculous signs may help some to believe in Jesus, but it is the Holy Spirit today who brings a new believer into a relationship with God.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You that You cared enough to come to this world at just the right time. We worship You today. Amen.

Working the Works

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.””
John 6:27-29 NKJV

The people having a conversation with Jesus, the Jews who had followed Him around the Sea of Galilee, had a noble but potential mission statement – working the works of God. These people had a good understanding of the God of the Old Testament, and wanted to do what He wanted them to do, at least they said they did. But over time their view of God had become mired in rules and regulations, and perhaps they had replaced Him with a “God” more of their own construction. They wanted a God who once again would interact positively in their affairs, feeding them with “manna” and helping them win battles over their belligerent neighbours, or, in their own topical situation, extracting their nation from the clutches of the Roman Empire. So to the Jews, the concept of doing God’s work focussed on the doing. But Jesus once again pointed out the most important “work” – believing in the One standing before them, that He was God’s Son, sent to redeem the people from their sins. 

There was another occasion when someone asked Jesus about what they should do and we can find the story in Matthew 19. A rich and religious man came to Jesus to ask what he should do to inherit eternal life. By the Galilean shores, Jesus told the Jews in the crowd to shift their labour, their doing, from working for natural foods to instead working towards eternal life. The rich man was aware of the importance of eternal life but felt a bit unsure about how to get there. To him, Jesus suggested he keep the commandments, going further to spell out which ones. But the rich man still wasn’t satisfied, and asked what else he should do because he had always been diligent in keeping the commandments. There was something inside the man’s heart that lacked the peace and joy that can only come from a relationship with God. Jesus told him to get rid of all the things that were holding him back, selling his “stuff” if necessary, but then we read the poignant conclusion, “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Matthew 19:22).

To the Jews by the Sea of Galilee, they had very little “stuff” in the first place so all Jesus asked them to do was to believe in Him. Once they had overcome that hurdle they were on the right path. The same question is hanging in the air today. Many people accept that Jesus came to this planet, but very few in our Western cultures actually believe in Him. And what about us pilgrims? Are we cultural Christians, warming the pews, arranging the Sunday flowers, and enjoying the social interactions, or are we a people who believe in the One sent from God? There is a world of a difference, and to get to a point of really believing in Jesus is a choice often riven by doubts.

The declaration of faith we call the Apostles’ Creed starts off, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord …” And it continues with statements of truth that add up to Jesus’ invitation to “believe in Him whom He sent”. But even then it is possible for people to just go through the motions, paying what is called a “lip service”, saying the words but not really believing them in their hearts. Believing in Jesus is a decision that leads to a lifetime of relationship with the One sent by God. 

To say we believe in Jesus is a counter-cultural statement and leads us to a position in society that sets us apart from those around us. Believers have a choice to make – to follow God’s ways or those of the secular society around us. But that is not to say we cut ourselves off from all contact with the lost and helpless. The ethos of showing God’s love to others, regardless of faith, is at the very heart of what God would have us do – showing His love and grace to a lost and dying world. There is no-one else to do it, and, for a believer, there is no-one better equipped.

Dear Lord Jesus. You came to seek and save the lost. There are many such people around us, so please help us to hear You clearly so that we can bring Your message of hope to them. In Your precious name. Amen.

“Spend Your Energy”

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.””
John 6:25-27 NLT

The “crowd” finally caught up with Jesus on the “other side of the lake”. This would have been in the region around Capernaum, on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Of course, by this time, numbers would have been much reduced because there wouldn’t have been enough boats to transport the five thousand men and their families across the lake, but we read in John 6:24 that they were “looking for Him”. But having found Him, the people were perplexed, because they couldn’t understand how He had got there so quickly. They knew that He wasn’t in the boat with the disciples, and there were no other boats available. But Jesus wasn’t one for a cosy chat, and He cut right across all the practical issues and questions to deliver a message about eternal life.

When He had been found by the people, Jesus immediately knew what they were after – more free food. Jesus used the phrase “I tell you the truth” to precede His analysis of the situation. This was a phrase He often used, and is worth taking note of as we read the Gospels and the words of Jesus. The old King James Version uses the phrase “verily, verily …”, something I’m sure we all remember. Jesus told His listeners, “you want to be with me because I fed you”. An understandable and accurate conclusion, but that wasn’t why He had come to Planet Earth. He had come to give the people eternal life. Something of much more value. 

Jesus told His listeners something that they probably weren’t so keen on. “Spend your energy seeking … eternal life”. To a people toiling to make a living from subsistence farming, such a message would have not gone down well. Because of the Fall, farming the ground was hard work. We read what God said to Adam in Genesis 3:17-18, “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains”. The curse was still on the ground when Jesus came to Palestine, and producing sufficient food to feed a family all year round wasn’t easy. Additionally, in years of famine, perhaps caused by unfavourable weather patterns, people starved. 

But the question for us pilgrims today is about where we spend our energy. I’m sure we could all produce a long list of pastimes that people follow, and none of them involve seeking eternal life. Of course, God knows that we need to earn a living. But regardless of where the source of what we need for our natural lives is, Jesus’ message is the same today as it was two thousand or so years ago. “Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you”. Meditating on just this phrase will open a door to a wealth of possibilities, but the overriding question must be, “Is what I am doing of benefit to God’s Kingdom or the worldly kingdom around us”. Perhaps our priorities should follow a pattern of God, and our relationship with Him, first. Then our employment to provide for our physical needs, and the needs of our families. Next, devoting our spare time and energy in doing works to further God’s Kingdom, and, lastly, if we have any time left, spending it on recharging our own batteries. But we each must do what Jesus told His Jewish listeners on the Galilee shore, “[seek] the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you”.  How we do that can only be determined in prayer and our faith and relationship in and with God.

Dear God. Jesus came to show us the way to You. His message of life and hope still reverberates around the world today. Please open our ears to hear You more. In Jesus’ name. Amen.